How Does the BSCS 5E Instructional Model Promote Active, Collaborative, Inquiry-Based Learning?
Because learning does not occur through a process of passive absorption, the lessons in this module promote active learning: students are involved in more than listening and reading. They are developing skills, analyzing and evaluating evidence, experiencing and discussing, and talking to their peers about their own understandings. Students work collaboratively with others to solve problems and plan investigations. Many students find that they learn better when they work with others in a collaborative environment than they do when they work alone in a competitive environment. When this active, collaborative learning is directed toward inquiry science, students succeed in making their own discoveries. They ask questions, observe, analyze, explain, draw conclusions, and ask new questions. These inquiry experiences include both those that involve students in direct experimentation and those in which students develop explanations through critical and logical thinking. This view of students
