Mr James Bird

This chapter is focused on discussion about the ways that tablet technology can support teaching and learning in inquiry contexts within STEM. The discussion about the nature of inquiry teaching and learning with digital technology is drawn from a series of case lessons in elementary science within the topic of ‘Properties of Materials’ in the UK. The research project informing this chapter examined teacher, young learners and non-participant observer’s perspectives of the same events, namely two sequential science lessons one with and the other with-out the use of tablet technology. A socio-cultural perspective of learning was adopted. Reflections on these three contrasting viewpoints of the processes of teaching and learning informs a theorisation about practice that utilises digital technology. As Clarke and Svanaes (Tech knowledge for schools. An updated literature review on the use of tablets in education, 2014), Geer et al. (Br J Educ Technol 48:490–498, 2017) and more recently the OECD (Digital strategies in education across OECD countries, 2020) report, there is still no ‘clear line’ about which devices best support education, or indeed, how digital devices can be most effectively used. This chapter, therefore, offers suggestions about the ways that affordances or opportunities for young learners should be noted and pedagogically promoted more effectively in science inquiry situations.