This study investigated the teaching procedures of two groups of science teachers at the elementary school level. One group had received instruction in the Science Curriculum Improvement Study (SCIS) methods which included the inquiry-discovery approach. The second group had recieved no instruction in any "new" approach. SCIS-educated teachers were shown to be encouraging a significantly larger number of the science experiences of observation, measurement, experimentation, interpretation of data, and prediction than the traditional science teachers. They also were shown to use a significantly larger number of questions requiring more analytical thinking than the traditional science teachers. Teachers instructed in one of the "new" science projects, on the basis of this study, are teaching elementary school science in a manner complementary to the "new" inquiry-discovery approach and they are encouraging use of the learners' higher cognitive powers because of the nature of questions asked in their classrooms. (GR)