Communicating science at school: from information to participation model

In recent years, international studies and surveys on science and technology have shown that many countries are increasingly concerned with the lack of attractiveness that scientific careers have among young people and with the insufficient diffusion of scientific culture. The contribution of pedagogues and philosophers of education recently stresses the importance of developing techniques for stimulating students‟ intrinsic motivation in learning science and participating in the scientific debate. Among other methodologies, inquiry-based learning (IBSE) has been acknowledged as a great potential to the development of scientific reasoning and to the related competences. Enhancing students‟ participation in the scientific debate is the central aim of the methodology developed by the research group “Science Communication and Education” of the Italian National Research Council (CNR) within the Project “Perception and Awareness of Science” (PAS). The present paper describes the proposal of CNR inspired by the IBSE principles but enriched by some peculiarities. After a brief introduction on the recognition of the importance of improving the scientific culture for the modern knowledge-based society, the paper makes a review of the use of IBSE methodologies and continues outlining a profile of the peculiarities introduced by the CNR-PAS methodology. The essay ends with some results of the surveys that have been carried out during the introduction of the PAS at school.