Research And Practice Of Cultivating Science Inquiry Ability In Junior Middle School Biology Based On Discipline Core Literacy

In order to adapt to the development and renewal of disciplines and the talent training orientation in the new era,in April 2022,the Ministry of Education of China issued the new version of the "Compulsory Education Biology Curriculum Standards." It transformed the previous three broad educational goals into four aspects of core literacy."Inquiry practice" is one of the core literacies,which includes scientific inquiry and interdisciplinary practice.It emphasizes the cultivation of students’ knowledge acquisition,understanding of scientific concepts,experience in the process of inquiry practice,and problem-solving skills.Cultivating students’ scientific inquiry abilities is one of the important ways to meet the requirements of the new curriculum standards and implement the core literacy of students in biology.This study is based on the demand for cultivating scientific inquiry abilities in the era of core literacy in disciplines and explores effective teaching models in middle school biology teaching,aiming to provide frontline teachers with new ideas for cultivating students’ scientific inquiry abilities.The theoretical part of this study uses literature research to clarify and integrate important concepts such as core literacy in disciplines and scientific inquiry abilities.Through questionnaire surveys and interviews,the current status of students’ scientific inquiry abilities in grade 7 of practice school and teachers’ cultivation of students’ scientific inquiry abilities were investigated.Existing problems were identified,and relevant literature materials were reviewed and selected,focusing on three commonly used teaching models for cultivating students’ scientific inquiry abilities: Project Based Learning(PBL),5E,and Toulmin argumentation.Based on this,drawing on the advantages of problem-oriented and cooperative inquiry in PBL,creating authentic scenarios and promoting knowledge transfer and application in the 5E teaching model,and utilizing refutation in the Toulmin argumentation teaching model to train students’ scientific thinking,a teaching model more suitable for middle school biology classroom teaching was designed.Furthermore,literature related to the evaluation system of scientific inquiry abilities was reviewed and analyzed,and diversified evaluation methods such as in-class process evaluation,pre-and post-tests,classroom observations,and post-interviews were used to evaluate the outcomes of cultivating students’ scientific inquiry abilities.The practical part of the study was conducted in the seventh grade of Y middle school in Kunming.First,the scientific inquiry ability levels of the eight classes in the seventh grade were tested,and based on the test results,two classes with similar levels of scientific inquiry abilities were selected as the experimental class(48 students)and the control class(45 students).Three exploratory experiments involved in the seventh grade biology textbook of junior high school were selected as examples : "environmental conditions for seed germination," " green leaves making organic matter under light " and " changes of steamed bread in the mouth." Before the experimental teaching,an analysis of the survey results on the current status of students’ scientific inquiry abilities and a pre-test of scientific inquiry abilities were conducted.The results of the pre-test showed that there was no significant difference in the average scores between the two classes(P>0.05).The experimental class used the combined teaching model,while the control class used the traditional teaching model.Finally,the changes in students’ scientific inquiry abilities were evaluated through diversified evaluation methods.The results showed that in the in-class process evaluation,the overall levels of three experimental lessons were rated as "good",with 70.84% of students achieving the levels of "excellent" and "good" in the "Environmental Conditions for Seed Germination" lesson,with 77.09% of students achieving the levels of "excellent" and "good" in the " Green Leaves Produce Organic Matter under Light " lesson and 81.25%in the " changes of steamed bread in the mouth ".The post-test scores revealed that the average score of the experimental class was 15.67,while the average score of the control class was 13.82,indicating that the post-test scores of the experimental class were significantly higher than those of the control class(P<0.05).Classroom observations found that the students in the experimental class showed higher classroom engagement and completion of experiments compared to the control class.The postinterview evaluations revealed that the students in the experimental class believed that their scientific inquiry abilities in various aspects had been improved,and the majority of students expressed a strong interest in biology classes.In summary,diversified evaluation methods are more effective in evaluating the outcomes of cultivating students’ scientific inquiry abilities.After implementing the combined teaching model for cultivating students’ scientific inquiry abilities,the scientific inquiry abilities of the experimental class significantly improved.The constructed teaching model for cultivating scientific inquiry abilities is beneficial for increasing students’ interest in the subject of biology.This study suggests that the use of the combined teaching model in the biology inquiry experiment class of grade 7 can more effectively cultivate students’ scientific inquiry abilities and stimulate students’ enthusiasm for learning.Further practical applications can be explored in biology classes.