THE HUMANISTIC AND INQUIRY ORIENTED SCIENTIFIC METHOD AS A TOOL TO ENABLE JUNIOR HIGH-SCHOOL STUDENTS' LEARNING PROCESS

Many researches show that there are low interest and motivation in physics among Junior high-school students. Students consider physics as a difficult and uninteresting subject. Analysis of the Finnish National Curriculum and textbooks in physics shows that there are poor references to the scientific picture of nature. To create a functioning scientific picture of nature students must ensure interdisciplinary relationships between physics and other subjects in science, it requires activation of students knowledge in physics and other science subjects. In order to activate students' knowledge in various school science subjects and simultaneously increase their interest to ensure that pupils are able to understand the scientific picture of nature, we used the teaching model based on the Humanistic and Scientific inquiry-oriented method. We compared this model with the traditional cyclical teaching model and examined how the Humanistic and Scientific inquiry-oriented method affects students' interest and motivation towards physics. Our survey showed that students' Knowledge Increase (KI,%) was 52% and their Competency Level in physics increased by 38% among boys and 13% among girls. Teaching according the Humanistic and Scientific Inquiry-oriented method enables the use of students' knowledge to create a functioning scientific picture of nature, increasing students' self-esteem and confidence and encourages students to use modern technology for the experiment.