The main issues identified in primary science education research over the decades are that primary teachers tend to have limited science subject matter knowledge, limited science pedagogical content knowledge and low confidence in science and science teaching, with the consequence that many avoid teaching science (Appelton 2007; cf. Harlen 1998). In different countries attempts to overcome these difficulties have been made. In Sweden, a program called NTA (Naturvetenskap och Teknik för Alla, trans. Science and technology for all) was developed by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences in 1997. The program was largely developed from the US National Science Resources Center (Wickman 2007). The idea is to provide complete materials for students, guides for teachers and students, and continuous in-service training for teachers. Today, NTA has become a widespread curriculum program, involving 66 000 students and 4 000 teachers in approximately 90 municipalities throughout Sweden (NTA 2009).

A core idea of the NTA program is that children should learn science through inquiry. In a European context inquiry based science education (IBSE) has been identified as a ‘key-approach’ to primary science education (Harlen 2009; Lena 2009), and recommended as the 'renewed pedagogy for the future of Europe' (European commission 2007). The considerable investment in IBSE curricular policy and practice calls for in depth research into what new science education practices are emerging.

Previous research on IBSE has raised questions concerning efficiency in relation to intended learning (e.g. Butts, Hofman & Anderson, 1994; Lederman et al 2009; Khishfe & Adb-El-Khalick, 2002). Also, Swedish research has shown that teachers are unclear about the meaning of inquiry (cf. Hult, 2000; Lager Nyqvist 2003) and tend to conflate terms related to methods of teaching and methods of inquiry (Gyllenpalm, Wickman & Holmgren 2009).

IBSE practice commonly emphasizes testing of predictions and focuses learners on-material-activity (Windschitl, Thompson, & Braaten 2008). Units in the NTA program similarly emphasize students’ prior experiences of a topic before commencing investigation. What experiences students and teachers draw on when working with IBSE in primary classroom practice is shaped by the goals, desires, demands, and traditions constituted within that practice (cf Andrée 2005; Säljö & Wyndhamn 1993).

This paper reports from a larger study on learning, narrative knowing and remembering in IBSE. Two research questions are investigated:

• What experiences do students draw on when reviewing what is already known about a topic in IBSE?
• In what ways do students make use of prior experiences in IBSE?

The research questions are conceptualized within a cultural-historical activity theoretical framework (cf. Roth et al 2005; Leontiev 1977/1986). The concepts of hybridity and third space, as developed by Gutiérrez, Baquedano-Lopez & Tejeda (1999), are used to account for events in classroom discourse where new meaning is formed that go beyond limits of prior discourses. Third space can be considered as an expanded activity (Engeström 1999) in which the object of activity is extended and reorganized (and functions as a boundary object).

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