DIDACTICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL SPECIFIC FEATURES OF THE APPLICATION OF LABORATORY-EXPERIMENTAL METHOD AND INQUIRY-BASED APPROACH TO TEACHING SCIENCE AND NATURE

Abstract

Students should be instructed in the ways in which scientific truths are reached as early as possible, so that they are able to grasp the complex system of knowledge about the natural and social environment. Their innate curiosity and the need to explore and study the world around them should be nourished and encouraged while Science lessons should include such teaching methods and strategies that provide opportunities for discovering, problem solving, experimenting, constructive and critical analysis, contemplation and interpreting certain phenomena and processes. Teaching Science in a classroom in which students are sitting properly while listening attentively to the teacher and memorizing the facts and information the teacher is presenting is considered traditional and it cannot meet the needs and challenges of the modern society. By using the laboratory-experimental method and inquiry-based approach that is theoretically grounded in todayˈs widely accepted constructivist educational paradigm, Science lessons could become more modern, innovative and more intense. Being engaged in the activities generated from the inquiry-based method makes students more independent, helps them boost their self-confidence and also enables them to acquire knowledge in different ways. At the core of the scientific method is the view that knowledge must come as a consequence of personal observation, practical action and thinking, whereas learning is seen as finding and discovering.

The paper emphasizes the structure, didactical and methodological specific features and the organisation of Science and Nature classes by using the laboratory-experimental method and inquiry-based approach, the consequences of its inadequate and insufficient application and lists the contents of the subjects The world around us/ Science and Nature that we consider appropriate for the application of this teaching strategy.