Inquiry-Based Education (IBE) : Towards an Analysing Tool to Characterise and Analyse Inquiry Processes in Mathematics and Natural Sciences

Inquiry-based Education (IBE) is being promoted by most science and mathematics curricula on an international level. This expansion is motivated by a political will to challenge students’ interest and motivation by changing the way science and mathematics are taught. In this context, many organising and analysing tools have been created as guidelines for helping both teachers and trainers to implement teaching-learning sequences involving inquiry processes. Nevertheless, most of these tools do not take into account the specificities of the scientific knowledge involved and merely focus on inquiry moments (such as formulating a hypothesis or performing an experiment) and/or on organising issues. In this chapter, a table is proposed as a characterising and analysing tool for inquiry-based sequences that are being implemented in science classrooms. This table is elaborated upon through the definition of features chosen to fit with both science and mathematics teaching sequences while respecting the specificities of each area of knowledge involved (mathematics, biology and physics). Two examples (in physics and in mathematics) of the use of the analysing tool that was designed are provided.