Inquiry-based learning as an approach to realize inclusive science education

Meeting the requirements of an increasingly scientific and technological world, science education needs to promote scientific literacy for all learners. To achieve this goal, science teachers are asked to acknowledge their students’ diversity and respond to their individual resources to subsequently enable them to participate in science-specific teaching-learning processes. Thus, contemporary teaching is not about adapting students to academic requirements but about implementing flexible instructional approaches that allow for participation in science learning. This means analysing barriers to the learning object and creating accessible and adaptive learning environments in the sense of inclusive science education. Inquiry-based learning (IBL) is a multifaceted instructional approach that is considered appropriate for meeting these demands. In this chapter, we explore how IBL as an adaptive teaching approach can help make science education more inclusive and thereby foster scientific literacy for all learners. Referring to research projects from both schools and universities in Germany, we briefly present selected studies and summarize their main findings and implications. Finally, we formulate some desiderata for future projects.