Student-driven Inquiry-based Science Education in Luxembourg Primary School Contexts

This study examined the use of a student-driven inquiry-based science education instructional approach designed specifically to meet the contextualized needs of Luxembourg primary schools. The key issues, namely an increasing linguistically diverse student population and limited instructional time for science, were considered in the design of the instructional approach. Drawing on theories of dialogic inquiry, the instructional approach engages students in asking questions and designing investigations to build their science understanding. This interpretive qualitative study utilized a multi-pe... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Wilmes, Sara
Dokumenttyp: doctoral thesis
Erscheinungsdatum: 2017
Verlag/Hrsg.: Unilu - University of Luxembourg
Schlagwörter: Science education / inquiry-based / multilingual / Luxembourg / primary school science education / heteroglossia / plurilingual / student voice as resource / student-driven / sociocultural theoretical frameworks / Social & behavioral sciences / psychology / Education & instruction / Sciences sociales & comportementales / psychologie / Education & enseignement
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-27133171
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
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Link(s) : https://orbilu.uni.lu/handle/10993/32187

This study examined the use of a student-driven inquiry-based science education instructional approach designed specifically to meet the contextualized needs of Luxembourg primary schools. The key issues, namely an increasing linguistically diverse student population and limited instructional time for science, were considered in the design of the instructional approach. Drawing on theories of dialogic inquiry, the instructional approach engages students in asking questions and designing investigations to build their science understanding. This interpretive qualitative study utilized a multi-perspective approach to analyse how teachers used the instructional approach in their classrooms and explored two overarching research questions, first, what instructional opportunities does Science Workshop, an inquiry-based student-driven science instructional approach, afford when used in Luxembourg primary classrooms? And second, what does analysis of interactions in these contexts reveal about inquiry-based science instruction in multilingual classrooms? Qualitative methodologies, specifically case studies of classroom implementation, were used to examine the use of the program teachers’ adaptations of the program in their classrooms. Bakhtinian notions of heteroglossia and dialogic pedagogies were used as lenses to examine the instructional opportunities afforded. Interaction analysis was used to examine instruction in a focal classroom when the inquiry-based approach was used. Analyses rooted in sociocultural theoretical frameworks of science and language learning revealed three key contributions toward the use of IBSE in Luxembourg primary schools. First, the key characteristics of teacher professional learning opportunities that supported teachers’ use of the program in Luxembourg, which included workshops, material support, and opportunities to share implementation cases were identified. Second, the ways in which ritualized instructional components afford students spaces to engage on micro-scales in building ...