Science education for primary and middle school students should conform to children’s cognitive characteristics, care for their innate curiosity and imagination, and help them appreciate the wonderful fun of observing, thinking and experimenting like scientists.
Although there are many opinions on how to add science education in the "double reduction" of education, there is a consensus that strengthening science education is not only to increase the teaching of scientific knowledge, but also to cultivate scientific literacy. Scientific literacy has the characteristics of multi-factor and multi-dimensional organic integration, including not only scientific knowledge and methods, but also scientific thinking, scientific attitude and scientific spirit. From the perspective of education, every subject, every scene and every link related to literacy cultivation cannot be separated from inquiry. Whether it’s questioning, model building, hypothetical experiment, problem solving, system discovery, innovation and development … The whole process of exploring with the germination, jointing, flowering and results of scientific literacy is filled in the life experience of every subject of science education. It can be said that science education is alive and smart because of inquiry. Facing the future, science education for teenagers should be based on inquiry.
As a biological term, "root" is an important organ of plants, which is mainly responsible for absorbing water and minerals, fixing plants and storing nutrients. Its morphological structure can be changed according to plant species and growth environment. In the Chinese culture, which highly values understanding things, "root" has long gone beyond its original meaning and has multiple meanings such as root, root, root cause and basis. No matter how complicated and ever-changing things are, only by nourishing their roots and guarding their foundations can they be deeply rooted and endless. Science education for primary and middle school students should conform to children’s cognitive characteristics, care for their innate curiosity and imagination, and help them appreciate the wonderful fun of observing, thinking and experimenting like scientists. Only in this way can the seeds of scientific innovation take root in their hearts and grow wantonly, and then become a habit and a state of life. Inquiry is not only a way of learning, but also a scientific attitude, and it is also an innovative quality, which indicates that learners gain happiness, satisfaction and sense of accomplishment in learning, scientific research and creation through self-attempt, thus laying a solid foundation for lifelong enthusiasm for scientific exploration. Inquiry is of great value to science education. The inquiry characteristics of science education are fully demonstrated in a multi-level sense.
One is the premise of the experiment. Experiments in science education must be based on inquiry. Without the examination and discussion of phenomena and previous experience, the birth of research problems lacks cognitive basis and theoretical basis. Inquiry, as the premise of experiment, is often manifested as questioning and questioning. In the process of questioning and questioning, everyone can express their opinions and brainstorm, so that new ideas can be generated and the experimental direction can be clarified. As the saying goes, "the trace of suspicion must be observed", only by finding the driving problem that is really worth exploring and investigating, and roughly clarifying the ins and outs, can we preset the solution to the problem and start the scientific experiment pointing to new discoveries and inventions. Science education is guided by questions, and starts from questioning and exploring.
The second is the learning content. Inquiry does not lie in science education, but stays at the entrance of science education, but advances with science education and becomes a part of science education content. Because the purpose of science education is to "guide students to participate in inquiry practice extensively, combine learning with thinking, entertain and entertain, consciously acquire scientific knowledge, cultivate scientific spirit, improve scientific quality … and weave the dream of becoming a scientist". Guiding students to think, explore and solve problems like scientists is the natural move and practical action of science education.
The third is the way of thinking. If inquiry, as an experimental premise or learning content, is separated from science educators to some extent, then from the perspective of thinking mode, inquiry is really integrated into teaching wisdom. In the design of science education teaching scheme, teachers’ inquiry thinking can’t be absent. On the basis of insight into the learning situation and analysis of problems, teachers can correctly preset various problems that may occur in the experiment and explore solutions. Only in the process of implementation can they meet the river and bridge the ladder, leading students to the other side of science. As the saying goes, "those who teach, grow good and save those who lose", "what is done above, what is done below". When teachers implement science education with inquiry thinking, students will acquire inquiry thinking through immersion experience.
The fourth is the necessary character. The cultivation of scientific literacy is indispensable to interrogation and reflection on existing cognitive schemes and investigation and identification of existing facts. It is an essential feature and character of science education to bring interrogation, reflection and investigation into the thinking process and integrate it into the content of science education. In other words, inquiry is the internal need of the implementation of science education and the driving force for the promotion of science education. Without inquiry, there is no real science education; If we don’t plant the roots of inquiry, it will be difficult to see the effectiveness of science education.
Inquiry contains the spirit of reflection, experiment and identification, which has both negative actions and constructive pursuit. Exploration in a complete sense is the dialectical unity of cracking and constructing, denying and affirming, keeping right and innovating. Healthy, active and scientific exploration should strive to achieve the unity of the following aspects.
The first is the unity of scientific inquiry and value inquiry. Scientific inquiry is an inquiry based on facts, in order to pursue the truth and help to establish the truth. It combs and examines the existing cognition and scheme based on the facts or conditions that have been presented, so as to reveal the essence of things and find the law of things’ operation under the conditions of teaching experiments. Value inquiry is an inquiry based on belief, the pursuit of meaning and the establishment of spirit. Based on the value judgment of rejuvenating the country through science and education and cultivating people through virtue, it discriminates and chooses the existing education and teaching ideas, so as to provide direction and adjust the thinking and behavior of teachers and students and clarify the goal of individual growth. The two are not independent, and scientific inquiry contains the content of value inquiry, and value inquiry must also take scientific inquiry as a reference.
The second is the unity of students’ inquiry and teachers’ inquiry. Guiding students to explore and demonstrating existing knowledge and related experiments is an indispensable link and content of scientific literacy cultivation. But at the same time, this process also needs the follow-up of teachers’ inquiry, that is, to constantly revise, enrich and improve their teaching plans and learning scaffolding in response to students’ questions. Students’ inquiry and teachers’ inquiry in science education are closely related. Only emphasizing students’ inquiry while ignoring teachers’ inquiry, science education will inevitably fall into dogma and rigidity, and cannot effectively deal with students’ problems and challenges.
The third is the unity of cognitive inquiry and fact inquiry. The inquiry of science education itself presents as a cognitive inquiry, which includes the doubt and construction of cognition, the exploration and experience of scientific thinking, scientific attitude and scientific spirit, but the inquiry of cognitive concepts cannot be regarded as the whole of science education. Fact inquiry and material inquiry are the transformation, change and innovation of existing things, and their significance is also extraordinary. Although cognitive inquiry is helpful to the transformation of reality, it can’t replace practical strength and material strength after all. Only in fact inquiry, by transforming matter with practice, can the endogenous energy of inquiry be fully released.
Cultivating young people who have the potential of scientists and are willing to devote themselves to scientific research, and laying a solid foundation for building a socialist modern power in an all-round way, can not be separated from the practice and innovation of science education. Science education needs to strengthen the consciousness of inquiry, attach importance to cultivating inquiry thinking, and make inquiry an internal driving force to support students’ lifelong curiosity, continuous exploration and invention.
(The author is the Department of Teacher Affairs of the Ministry of Education)
China Education News, March 28th, 2024, 7th edition.