Who developed inductive approach in science teaching?

The inductive method of teaching moves from specific observations and concrete examples to a general rule or principle, rather than starting from a rule and applying it to instances (the deductive method); this process of drawing a general conclusion from particular observations is called induction.

The systematic method of induction -- collecting specific observations and generalising a law from them -- was formulated by the English philosopher Francis Bacon in his work Novum Organum (1620), proposed as a deliberate alternative to the syllogistic, deduction-based logic that had dominated scholastic reasoning since Aristotle. Because science teaching that begins with concrete examples or experiments and leads learners toward the general law follows exactly this Baconian process, Francis Bacon is credited as the originator of the inductive approach used in science teaching.

Contrast with the other names offered:

• Aristotle systematised deductive reasoning through the syllogism, where a conclusion is drawn from general premises to a specific case -- the opposite direction of reasoning to induction.

• Jerome Bruner is known for discovery learning and the spiral curriculum, a twentieth-century instructional theory, not the originator of the method of induction.

• Robert Gagne is known for the conditions-of-learning framework, which organises instruction into a hierarchy of prerequisite skills and events, again not the origin of induction.

• Francis Bacon alone is credited with formulating the method of induction (specific observations to general law) in Novum Organum, the basis of the inductive approach in science teaching.

Hence the inductive approach in science teaching traces to Francis Bacon.