Promoting the Integration of Inquiry Based Science and English Learning in Primary Education Through Triadic Partnerships

Saturdays of Science. An Experimental Learning and Training Scenario in CLIL and IBSE: A Case Study

“…Hence, a quality index that can ensure good functioning of bilingual programmes is evident when there is a high degree of coordination between teachers from linguistic and subject-matter areas (Halbach, 2008;Lova Mellado and Martínez, 2015;Sanz de la Cal et al, 2018). However, this approach when applied to the teaching of science in English implies great challenges for teachers, as Espinet et al (2017) and Espinet et al (2018) mentioned. Teachers imparting science in a FL have to make use of both their scientific competence and their level of language at the same time, in order to develop the official curriculum.…”

“…In consequence, contextualized learning is promoted, as the activities that are developed are related with objects, processes, and experiences that occur in a specific environment (Stoddart, Pinal, Latzke and Canaday, 2002). Thus, inquiry-based and FL learning have a synergetic effect: if the language is taught in an effective way, it improves scientific learning and, in turn, the effective instruction of scientific content strengthens and stimulates the development and the learning of the language, promoting the development of superior thinking skills (Bruno-Jofré and Cecchetti, 2016;Nargund-Joshi, and Bautista, 2016;Espinet et al, 2017;Garzón-Díaz, 2018). Linguistic competences will increase when students demonstrate their science understanding in a FL and as language skills increases, subject matter knowledge will also improve (Nargund-Joshi and Bautista, 2016).…”

“…From among the few available studies, we may highlight the works of Valdés-Sánchez and Espinet (2013), Valdés-Sánchez et al (2013, Espinet et al (2018), in which the effectiveness of co-teaching stands out, among teachers of English and sciences, as a training tool and for the construction of didactic CLIL sequences. The SciencePro project (Izquierdo et al, 2016), together with IBSE and English learning in primary education programs (Espinet et al, 2017) all attempt to introduce improvements in the knowledge of inservice and future teachers and their aptitudes and attitudes for the teaching of the natural sciences in a FL, using active methodologies for science teaching. Further studies are needed, due to the scarcity of research, to improve pre-service primary teachers' skills at using the IBSE + CLIL approach.…”