2023 Volume 64 Issue 2 Pages 125-133
Analysis of the 2015 OECD Student Achievement Survey, as well as other factors, highlights the need to improve the quality of inquiry activities used in upper secondary school science learning. While the Course of Study published in 2018 advises that inquiry-based learning should be implemented in stages at the elementary and lower secondary school levels, it does not clearly state as such with regard to the upper secondary level. Upper secondary school science teachers reportedly have not been proactive in implementing inquiry activities due to various barriers, such as their busy schedules and lack of materials to support such activities. The study reported herein focuses on the levels of inquiry framework as a potential approach to incrementally improving the quality of inquiry activities used in Japanese upper secondary school science learning, and applies the framework to inquiry activities detailed in five upper secondary school biology textbooks that are compliant with the Courses of Study. The results suggest that the inquiry activities described in the textbooks could be analyzed with reference to the definitions proposed by Banchi and Bell (2008) and Buck, Bretz and Towns (2008)—that is, structured over five levels of inquiry from 0 to 4, based on the amount of information provided to the students. The analyses revealed that most inquiry activities described in the textbooks were level 2 or lower. However, one company’s textbook included several descriptions that raised the inquiry level. Given that science teachers can freely vary the levels of inquiry when dealing with familiar experimental materials by applying the levels of inquiry model and adjusting the amount of information given to students, it is advisable to reconsider how the materials presented in the approved textbooks should be approached, taking into account improvements in the quality of inquiry activities in upper secondary school science and the resulting enhancement of students’ inquiry skills.
