Scientific thinking is an essential skill for full application in society associated with responsible human decision-making. The development of research skills and knowledge also contributes to its complexity. For the possibility of their systematic development, it is necessary to map the current situation of students in primary schools. The aim of the work was to find out what are the research skills of these students in the field of correctly formulating a research question based on specific problem and after finding a solution to formulate an answer to a given research question. Four research-oriented tasks were used, which were solved by 58 students from the seventh grade of primary school. It was found that more than half of the students are not able to formulate the research question correctly and more than one third of the students are unable to formulate the answer to the given research question correctly.

Le mémoire vise à proposer une épistémologie pragmatique de la science scolaire à l’école primaire. Un défaut de compréhension de la nature de la science pourrait en effet justifier en partie les difficultés de l'enseignement des sciences par démarche d'investigation. Une étude des représentations de la science chez les enseignants et futurs enseignants confirme qu’ils n‘en ont pour la plupart qu‘une vision assez floue, relevant majoritairement d'une forme d'empirisme naïf. Un jeu opératoire de critères de scientificité adapté au contexte de l’école est développé dans une approche "bottom-up" partant des pratiques de classe effectives. Sa capacité à discriminer pratiques scientifiques et non scientifiques est discutée, de même que les implications didactiques et épistémologiques de son utilisation. Il est en particulier possible d‘en déduire des définitions évolutives d‘une science scolaire normative mais subsidiaire par rapport à la “science des scientifiques”. Cet outil épistémologique s’avère bien reçu par les enseignants auxquels il a été présenté. Le test en situation de différentes stratégies pédagogiques fait apparaître que les plus efficaces pour l'appropriation de critères de scientificité ajoutent à la démarche d’investigation une composante épistémologique explicite. Certains éléments de méthode scientifique peuvent être travaillés dès la Grande Section de maternelle (5-6 ans) : des élèves ayant vécu des démarches d’investigation s’avèrent capables de revendiquer la primauté de l’expérience, mais aussi de mettre en œuvre des tests relatifs à plusieurs critères de scientificité et de s‘approprier les rudiments de la modélisation scientifique. / The purpose of this thesis is to propose a pragmatic epistemology of school science in primary school. Indeed, some of the difficulties encountered by inquiry-based science education may be attributed to a lack of understanding of the very nature of science. A survey on the perception of science by incumbent teachers and teachers in training confirms that most of them have a relatively vague vision grounded in a form of naive empiricism. A practical set of criteria of scientificity adapted to the school context is developed through a “bottom-up” approach based on actual classroom practices. Its efficiency at discriminating scientific and non-scientific practices is discussed, as well as the didactical and epistemological implications of its use. It is thus possible to deduce evolutive definitions of a school science that is normative yet subordinated to the “science of scientists”. Teachers responded positively to this epistemological tool when it was presented to them. Among the different teaching strategies tested in a classroom, the most efficient for the acquisition of criteria of scientificity were those which supplemented the inquiry process with an explicit epistemological component. Some elements of scientific method can be introduced as early as kindergarten (5-6 y.o) : after experimenting with inquiry processes, pupils have proved able not only to claim the primacy of experiment but also to run tests related to different criteria of scientificity and acquire the basics of scientific modeling.

Charles University in Prague - Faculty of Science Department of Teaching and Didactics of Chemistry Albertov 3, 128 40 Praha 2, Czech Republic CARBON DIOXIDE IN SCIENCE EDUCATION (STUDY AIDS FOR GRAMMAR SCHOOL) Bc. Lucie Kristlová lucie.kristlova@gmail.com In this thesis the principles of Framework Educational Programme and method IBSE alias Inquiry Based Science Education were summarized. The results of international research PISA 2006 were evaluated. In 2006 the focus was on scientific literacy. In the theoretical part the study supporting documents on the theme Carbon Dioxide were worked up. The documents would serve teachers of Chemistry and Biology mainly at the grammar schools. Methodically processed materials were created such as presentation, worksheet and subject matter of chemical experiments with the inclusion of the author solutions. The worksheet was verified by pupils at grammar school.