Where the geographical expanse ends – Space education in primary school. Implementation of inquiry based science education (IBSE) in geography lessons in Polish school

Inquiry based science education has been more and more popular strategy in teaching sciences in recent years. Transregional pressure put by international, standardized knowledge and skills tests (e.g. PISA) to converge curricula (Rundgren 2015) of different European states paradoxically helps to promote the open inquiry method which involves the student in the teaching process. Earlier research done in many countries such as Turkey, Israel, Sweden, The Czech Republic (Heinz et al. 2017), Ireland (Dunne et al. 2013) or The Netherlands (Uum van Martina et al. 2016) shows the increase of interest in IBSE both in Europe and in the world.

Teaching geography in Polish primary schools follows international educational trends. This study analyses several proposals of educational activities connected with Space which support geography teaching. All of them are conducted with using open inquiry method, which is recommended in New National Curriculum of geography (Core Curriculum, 2017, Geography-classes V-VIII).