EXPLORATORY TALK IN SCIENCE EDUCATION: INQUIRY-BASED LEARNING AND COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH IN PRIMARY SCHOOL

Recent research on science education has increasingly focused on the role of exploratory talk for learning science in school. This study was conducted in third grade in the Swedish compulsory school and shows how difficult exploratory talk in science is to achieve. The recordings of each lesson focused mainly on the teacher but included the pupils as the teacher interacted with them. The empirical material was analysed from two different perspectives: ways of communicating the science content and communicative approach. The analysis of the classroom practice showed that scientific descriptions were dominating ways of communication. Only in a few cases explanations of scientific phenomena were in focus. Those situations caused turning points into more interactive/dialogic communications or exploratory talk. One main conclusion is that exploratory talk and scientific explanations are not easily achieved when working in primary school. These skills are not automatically attained by the use of inquiry-based material – it needs to be trained!