The Meaning Of And Need For “inquiry Based Science Education (Ibse)”

Abstract

It is clear from many studies that European students’ interest in science, mathematics and technology has been declining while their grade levels have increased. Another alarming issue for Europe is recruitment of students for science and technology related careers. According to the ROSE Project results, extremely few girls wish to become scientists, and even for boys the percentage is low. And in Europe, around 50% of boys gave a positive response to the question: “I would like to get a job in technology”, but very few girls indicated that they would like to pursue such a career option (Sjoberg and Schreiner, 2010). These kinds of results from project reports highlight the urgent need for more effective action on the teaching and learning of science in schools.

According to a report published by the European Commission, the science education community mostly agrees that pedagogical practices based on inquiry-based methods are more effective for the teaching and learning of science. However, the reality of classroom practice is that in the majority of European countries, these methods are only being implemented by relatively few teachers (Rocard et al, 2007). The report continues to explain the advantages of inquiry based science education (IBSE) and the recommendations clearly promote the use of IBSE for the teaching and learning of science in Europe.