TECHNOLOGICAL SUPPORT FOR INQUIRY-BASED LEARNING: DEVELOPMENT AND USE OF DIGITAL RESOURCES IN SCIENCE EDUCATION WITHIN THE EUROPEAN PROJECT PROFILES

Inquiry-based learning is defined like a process where students are involved in their learning, formulate questions, investigate and then build new conceptions, meanings and knowledge. In essence, teaching through inquiry promotes the involvement of students in research to satisfy curiosities, which disappears when students build mental structures that explain properly and correctly their experiences. The curiosity provoked by problematic situations creates a focused motivation to learn. Inquiry activities should be a valuable context for provide learners with the motivation to acquire new knowledge, a perspective for incorporating new knowledge into their existing knowledge and an opportunity to understand science concepts and apply their knowledge.

The potential of digital technologies offer new opportunities to support inquiry-based learning. For example, the use of computer simulations is a successful way to promote the abstraction level that is required to achieve a sustained understanding of scientific concepts, because they facilitate “learn by doing” interactive environments – hands-on, minds-on – which increase the curiosity and interest of the students. Consequently, in Portugal within the project PROFILES (Professional Reflection-Oriented Focus on Inquiry Learning and Education through Science: http://www.profiles-project.eu/) we had two teacher training courses, that intended the preparation, by teachers, of inquiry activities with the use of educational software. Then, these activities were implemented with students on their classrooms.

We present two examples of digital educational resources developed by us. In these resources it is highlighted the microscopic incursion (zoom in) targeting the understanding of the essence of chemical phenomena and the correction of vision defects is simulated with the correct use of convex and concave lenses, which may reveal a pedagogic strength, given the limited access to the manipulation of this biological system, the eye.
The study of electric current through a solution and the vision defects correction, with multimedia technologies, for example, provide rich opportunities for the inquiry-based learning. Blended, they provide opportunities to exploit technology as a support for inquiry to achieve formulated and refined research questions, plan and manage an investigation and analyze and communicate results.
Some students of elementary and secondary school give us positive signs in favor of technological support for inquiry-based learning in science education, referring that the participation in inquiry provided them the achievement of specific investigation skills, and the understanding of science concepts and principles.