INQUIRY AND ASSESSMENT
What is inquiry?
SAILS aims to prepare science teachers, not only to
be able to teach science through inquiry, but also to
be confident and competent in the assessment of
their students’ learning through inquiry.
Inquiry is a process where people work
together to find out explanations and
arrive at deeper understandings about
nature and the Universe. The diagram
shows the typical processes that scientists
might use. All of these processes are
involved in scientific inquiry, and by including
social aspects make it more gender-inclusive.
It is important for pupils to understand the
range of activities involved in scientific inquiry.
Implications for science teaching
Because inquiry involves both logical and social aspects of learning then the laboratory needs to be set up so both aspects can be evident and pupils:
Can work together
Formulate hypotheses
Do investigations
Gain data
Analyse findings
Come to conclusions
Have freedom to learn from mistakes
Have some control over what they do and how to
inquire
Learn self- and co-regulation
Have time to grapple
Discuss and debate
Become self and socially regulated learners
Learn to develop socially and emotionally across
diversity
Be able to accept critical debate.
Teacher decisions
Assessment
These would include:
Inquiry is a process.
Hence assessment must be flexible and relevant to what the pupils are doing. Assessment should focus on being
formative as it needs to consider how pupils can be enabled to be reflective and learn to enquire.
• Which inquiry skills should be
focused on?
• How open or guided should the
enquiry be?
• What would a good enquiry look
like?
• Decide what good progress would be
• What evidence would help decide if
progress had taken place?
• Assess the group and/or the
individual?
• What range of evidence (verbal,
observation, written, video) by
teacher and/or pupils?
• Balance of evidence between
objective and subjective
• Logical and social aspects of inquiry
assessed?
• How can questions be asked that
probe the pupil’s thinking, both
individual and as a group, without
giving directions?
Attention should be paid to the pupils’ social and emotional development as well as the logical and scientific
understanding.
Assessment techniques
•
•
•
•
•
•
Teacher observations
Teacher questions that probe thinking
Peer assessment
Self-assessment
Video
Audio
The principles of Assessment for
learning (Afl) and inquiry both
require social interactions and
reflective pupils.
Next developments for teachers and the school
What will be the next inquiries that will help pupils’ development and progress?
How is effective feedback given to feed forward into the next development?
How do the formative judgements feed into summative assessments?
How can all the teachers in the science department be helped to develop inquiry teaching?
How can a whole-school policy be developed? What would the role of the science department?
Groups discuss how well they:
• Helped each other learn
• Did the enquiry
• Got on together
• Written work
• Rubrics