The purpose of this study has been to examine students’ participation when using inductive and deductive teaching methods. The aim have been to see how different teachers work while teaching science to students in primary school. We also want to find out how the individual teachers reflect on their own teaching based on our focus on inductive and deductive teaching, and explore differences in students' participation in the different teaching methods. We have used the following questions:

• In what ways differs inductive and deductive teaching methods in science in the investigated classes?
• Do the teachers think that they adapt science instruction based on selected methods?
• Is it possible to see differences between the two methods when it comes to students' participation in the investigated situation?

The study is based on a qualitative method with eight classroom observations and four interviews with class teachers. Our study is based on the social constructivist perspective.  Our conclusions are that operations during the observed lessons were essentially inductive, regardless of which of the methods used during the introduction or conclusion of the lesson. We have seen in our study that teachers have chosen teaching method based on the purpose of the lesson and the composition of the group. All teachers believe that they make use of both teaching methods. The result shows that that we cannot see any clear differences when it comes to students' participation in terms of inductive and deductive methods of teaching. Possibly we can see that there is a tendency that inductive teaching promotes participation among students.