Inquiry-based learning has recently become one of the much advocated methodologies used especially in teaching of natural sciences. This of course opens the question whether it is suitable also for teaching informatics, or even more specifically for teaching programming in a didactical programming environment. In action research conducted within teaching practice of pre-service informatics teachers we tried to explore if any of the approaches and types of activities used by these pre-service teachers correspond to the principles of inquiry-based learning. In the research we study how pre-service teachers cope with these approaches to teaching, what contemporary pupils´ attitudes to learning programming are, how this topic and the different activities used in the lessons appeal to them and how this type of lessons is perceived by teachers themselves - pre-service informatics teachers.