ABSTRACT
This study focuses on the teachers’ predictions of the students’ performances – in particular the middle-low achievers – while solving tasks testing inquiry competencies. The tasks come from PISA science. More specifically we study science teachers’ predictions for several aspects: levels of difficulty of the tasks, the potential sources of difficulty and the potential difficulty in solving it for medium-low achievers. We also study what assessed competencies are identified by science teachers in the tasks. Our approach is a questionnaire-based study. A sample of French teachers in science and technology (125) responded to the questionnaire. The teachers show a rather good ability to predict inquiry task levels of difficulty for medium-low achievers and are able to identify relevant potential sources of difficulty or easiness in the items. However, they are not aware of some essential difficulties that medium-low students encounter while solving science inquiry tasks. Moreover, the teachers have difficulty identifying the competencies that are tested by an item.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.