This qualitative action research study. analyzed the contributio'1 of teacher-designed materials in the development of students' inquiry skills. For this study the skills selected were Observation. Prediction, Interpretation and Communication (OPIC). The study took place in a private school in Bogota with a sample of ten second graders. in the Science class. Six worksheets were designed based on the Second Language Acquisition principles focused on Problem-based learning approach. The data gathering instruments used were: students' artifacts with their self-assessment. field notes and focus group interview. Data was analyzed by using the grounded theory and the color coding technique. The findings showed that teacher-designed materials promoted self-construction of knowledge. understanding the socio-cultural context using sequenced worksheets that favor students' preferences and provided strategies to achieve communicative goals and independent practice supported by feedback. Problern-based learning strategies to solve problems benefited identification ,rnd description of elements and situations to find needs; comparison leaded to suitable outcomes on problems; and inquiry skills were enhanced through observation and prior knowledge for accurate prediction and appropriate interpretation of data that supported different ways of communicating results.

La investigación busca determinar el grado de influencia (tamaño de efecto) de tres factores asociados al aprendizaje. Se diseñaron instrumentos con los cuales se indagaron las percepciones de los estudiantes acerca de los indicadores que permitían evaluar cada variable. Se utilizaron los programas Winsteps para garantizar la confiabilidad de los instrumentos y AMOS, que usa la metodología de las ecuaciones estructurales, para determinar la forma en que se relacionan las variables, los tamaños de efecto y la varianza explicada por el modelo obtenido. Se encontró que la actitud hacia las Matemáticas y los hábitos de estudio presentan una influencia moderada pero significativa con el desempeño académico, en cambio no se presentaron resultados claros respecto a la influencia del ambiente de aula en el desempeño académico de los estudiantes. El estudio muestra una metodología aplicable a otros estudios en el campo de la investigación educativa en Colombia.