Development of inquiry skills at lower secondary school level

As part of a national IT Academy project, our goal is to increase pupils’ interest in studying Informatics and STEM subjects in general. We consider the changes in education focused on targeted use of the IBSE approach to be key. We monitor the development of pupils’ skills and the degree of conceptual understanding of key concepts and phenomena. To introduce the necessary innovations in every STEM subject, a team of experts has proposed 60 innovative lessons (methodologies), for each subject. The methodologies were piloted and evaluated by experienced teachers, modified and re-entered in the verification. Teachers have the opportunity to participate in continuous education, where they gain experience with inquiry teaching approach, formative assessment and strategies for developing pupils’ skills. One of the key conditions for teachers to begin to trust in innovation is to gain confidence in their importance and benefits. In order to motivate teachers, we used initial measurements of selected skills of pupils. Our goal is to prove the necessity of systematic monitoring and targeted development of skills through the offered educational activities. Within the national project IT academy, a multiple choice test has been developed to assess skills to making predictions and following directions. The tasks are inspired by the real life situations pupils either have experienced before or it is possible they will experience. The test items have a form of an on-line assignment. The pre testing was conducted at the lower secondary schools joined into national project. Pre-test results are made available to schools to respond by introducing innovative methodologies into their school curricula. In the paper we present selected results of the entrance skills test, analysis of questions focused on the development of individual skill levels and comparison of results depending on the school year of pupils.