Sociologists increasingly note that we live in a risk society, characterised by the unpredictable consequences of techno-scientific innovation and production and by increasing complexity. Life in risk society, particularly in truly democratic societies, to a greater extent requires competencies not only to understand and change one's own circumstances, but also to participate in collective decision-making and to care for others who, for various reasons, have less control over their circumstances. We argue that Allgemeinbildung encompasses exactly the kind of competencies that are required by risk society. We us concrete case materials from our research to illustrate participation in risk society by adults and educational contexts that allow children to develop Allgemeinbildung.

The object of this article is to generate the theoretical and methodological foundation in order for researchers and educators to be able to evaluate teaching, which is inspired by Inquiry Based Science Education. Science teaching in subsequent developmental projects can be evaluated as to its ability to enhance the science competencies of the pupils. The foundation consists of the integration of the characteristics of IBSE-inspired teaching with learning outcomes in terms of science competence and its four sub-competencies: investigative competence, representative competence, modeling competence and perspective competence. The theory and method will be tested and evaluated in an upcoming developmental project in four University Colleges in Denmark, where there will be developmental as well as research focus on the integration of the two perspectives, a methodological – IBSE – and a goal-oriented – science competence. The complexity of the developmental project must be reflected by a complexity of the research process, wherefore this article presents and discusses a three dimensional evaluation model in order for the researcher to be able to investigate relations between IBSE-inspired teaching and learning outcomes in terms of science competencies.Results from the subsequent research process are expected to highlight the links between a teaching method and learning outcomes and give answers to critical questions about the goals of IBSE-inspired teaching, and also give answers about the relevance of a matrix described competence model for science teaching practice.

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