Vad ska elever lära sig angående naturvetenskaplig verksamhet? : En analys av svenska läroplaner för grundskolan under 50 år

The purpose of this study is to contribute to an understanding of which changes related to scientific inquiry have been made historically in curriculum documents. A comparative analysis is made of five Swedish national curricula– Lgr 62, Lgr 69, Lgr 80, Lpo 94 and Lgr 11 – during the last 50 years regarding what compulsory school students (school years 1–9) should learn about scientific inquiry. It focuses 1) what students should learn about carrying out scientific inquiries, and 2) what students should learn about the nature of science. All of the curricula examined have aims concerning scientific inquiry. The results show that during the period there have been many shifts in emphasis and changes of aims, for example from learning an inductive method to a more deductive one, and from an emphasis on carrying out investigations to an emphasis on more conceptual understanding of scientific investigations. Because teaching traditions tend to conserve aspects of earlier curricula, it is discussed how the results can help teachers, teacher students and curriculum developers to better see the consequences of the changes for teaching and learning.