Inquiry-based science education: towards a pedagogical framework for primary school teachers

Inquiry-based science education (IBSE) has been promoted as an inspiring way of learning science by engaging pupils in designing and conducting their own scientific investigations. For primary school teachers, the open nature of IBSE poses challenges as they often lack experience in supporting their pupils during the different phases of an open IBSE project, such as formulating a research question and designing and conducting an investigation. The current study aims to meet these challenges by presenting a pedagogical framework in which four domains of scientific knowledge are addressed in seven phases of inquiry. The framework is based on video analyses of pedagogical interventions by primary school teachers participating in open IBSE projects. Our results show that teachers can guide their pupils successfully through the process of open inquiry by explicitly addressing the conceptual, epistemic, social and/or procedural domain of scientific knowledge in the subsequent phases of inquiry. The paper concludes by suggesting further research to validate our framework and to develop a pedagogy for primary school teachers to guide their pupils through the different phases of open inquiry.     

Supports and Concerns for Teacher Professional Growth During the Implementation of a Science Curriculum Innovation

Internationally, considerable reform in science education is occurring which promotes constructivist philosophies and advocates constructivist-inspired pedagogical strategies that are new to many teachers. This paper reports on the supporting factors necessary for teacher professional growth and the issues of concern that were evident during one primary teacher's successful implementation of a unit of work based on a draft of a new state-wide science syllabus which proposes such approaches. One researcher (CEP) provided guidance during the writing and implementation of the unit through professional development workshops complemented by ongoing collegial support. The analysis of the teacher's practice reveals that professional growth required a willingness of the teacher to engage with change and modify his professional practice. The support factors for teacher growth consisted of an appropriate program of professional development, teacher understanding of the elements of the curriculum innovation, and successful experiences in implementing new approaches. In contrast, the issues of concern were: the adequacy of support for planning including the time required to understand the innovation and make changes to teaching practice; science equipment; teacher knowledge; classroom management strategies; and ways to cope with change. Understanding of these support factors and issues of concern is vital for the successful implementation of science curriculum innovations.     

‘Just Be Quiet and Listen to Exactly What He's Saying': Conceptualising power relations in inquiry-oriented classrooms

Interest in inquiry-based science education (IBSE) often pays little heed to the complex power relations that exist within classrooms. A common obstacle to inquiry is that it strongly diverges from current classroom culture and hence, is outside the sphere of teachers' and students' experiences. Teachers and students bring expectations to the classroom that are entrenched in traditional practices and influenced by dynamics of power that exist within all teacher–student relationships. This study, which emerged during a wider study of the use of a Virtual Chemistry Lab in supporting IBSE, explores how classroom discourse constructs and maintains power relations that either stifle or facilitate inquiry-based approaches in two science lessons. Research methods included teacher interviews, student focus groups, video-recorded lessons, and student self-assessments. Findings indicate distinctive features of power inside the classroom that impact on inquiry-based instruction, such as predominant teacher monitoring on task completion over task understanding, lack of student engagement in ownership of scientific ideas, and prevailing norms of what effective teacher questioning is. We discuss implications for IBSE change efforts, highlighting that well-established power relations currently represent an important limiting factor in the capacity of teachers' IBSE implementation.     

Investigating the Potential of Irish Primary School Textbooks in Supporting Inquiry-based Science Education (IBSE)

This study analyses several Irish primary school science textbook sets to evaluate their potential to support Inquiry-based Science Education (IBSE). The study was prompted by the results of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) 2008 survey of Irish primary science which indicated that a 72% of surveyed teachers are using science textbooks within their teaching. The reliance on deductive methodologies, such as the using textbooks, has been attributed to a lack of pedagogical content knowledge. As the Irish primary science curriculum was changed to be more experiential in 2003, it is unlikely that deductive teaching from textbooks aligns with the new aims and objectives of the curriculum. This research analyses three textbook groups through the lens of the 5E model of teaching, a well-known framework for teaching through inquiry. A four-layer framework was developed around the 5E model that would highlight the strengths and weaknesses of textbooks in supporting IBSE. The results indicate that the various textbooks contain different structures, pedagogies and content, which can potentially be used to support the development of IBSE schema however, professional development must be provided as to how best to integrate textbooks into practice.     

Obstacles Confronting Technology Initiatives as Seen Through the Experience of Science Teachers: A Comparative Study of Science Teachers' Beliefs,Planning, and Practice

There currently exists unparalleled discrepant growth between technological advancements and educators' understanding of appropriate classroom technology implemenation. The Tech Tools teacher enhancement program was designed to provide teachers with hardware and expertise with state-of-the-art science and math microcomputer technologies. This study was conducted as an examination of the implementation of current technologies in teacher education and school settings for the purpose of informing other science, mathematics, and technology reform efforts. For over two years researchers gathered data from surveys, interviews, and on site visits and observations explicating the 1) teacher knowledge and beliefs, 2) computer use for instruction, 3) hardward access, and 4) school support for technology use. Results revealed teachers given identical equipment and training implemented similar technologies in vastly different ways. Discrepancies in implementation of technology were best explained through the lenses of teachers' existing practice and beliefs about their school context. Recommendations are given regarding technology implementation, teacher education, and evaluation of technology initiatives.     

理科教师信念研究综述

教师信念被视为影响教学实践的重要因素之一,有关教师信念的研究也一直是教师教育领域关注的热点。本文主要依据国际科学教育文献对理科教师信念的相关研究进行梳理。文章首先探讨了理科教师信念的界定,然后对有关理科教师信念的6个研究主题进行介绍与评述,并提出我国理科教师教育需要关注的四个问题,最后呼吁我国学者应更多地从事理科教师信念方面的研究。     

The role of motivation between perceived teacher support and student engagement in science class

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to investigate the relationships among the middle school students’ perceptions of science teacher support, students’ motivation and students’ engagement in learning science. Student motivation was addressed with task value and academic self-concept while student engagement included aspects of agentic, behavioural, emotional and cognitive engagement. In the study, survey method was used and the data were collected though previously validated self-report questionnaires. Valid data were obtained from 1006 middle school students enrolled in one of the nine public schools in Turkey. The path analysis revealed that perceived science teacher’s support positively predicted students’ task value and academic self-concept in science. Furthermore, students who reported high levels of task value and academic self-concept showed higher levels of engagement in science. Accordingly, it seems important for science teachers to listen to the students, behave fairly and help them to solve their problems in order to motivate them for learning science and increase their engagement in science class.     

Controversial Conversations in Science: Incorporating the Science “Sex Box”

Science classrooms—and science textbooks—are proving to be challenging spaces for education that contradicts abstinence-only-until-marriage (AOUM) sex education. However, science educators can teach against this knowledge in a way that is critical of oppressive language. In fact, having explicit dialogue about gender identities and sexual orientation can help uncover oppressive cultural attitudes and help science educators challenge universal views of the human body. This article examines two narratives that use a pedagogic practice to help them teach in AOUM environments. The first narrative discusses personal experiences of the author as a science teacher and the dilemmas faced by including what I call a “sex box” in a life science class. The second narrative discusses an excerpt from a research study conducted with life science teachers in which a participant uses this same method. The purpose of this discussion is to help expose the science classroom as a place to have meaningful discussions, even with policies and cultures that do not support the discussion of safe sex for minority human sexualities.¹ This article suggests future science teachers and present teachers alike can advocate for the incorporation of national standards that counteract overtly discriminatory policies.     

Studying science teacher identity: current insights and future research directions

Over the past 10?years an increasing number of articles have been published in leading science education journals that report on research about teacher identity and describe interventions that support teacher identity development. My purpose in this review paper is to examine how the construct of science teacher identity has been conceptualised and studied in science education. In doing so, I synthesise the findings of 29 empirical studies on teacher identity within the field of science education in an attempt to respond to the following questions: (a) In what ways have researchers used the construct of teacher identity to examine science teacher learning and development? (b) What approaches to supporting science teacher identity development have been documented in the literature? Following that, I identify gaps and limitations in the existing literature and I offer recommendations for future research in the area of science teacher identity and identity development: (a) studying teacher identity as a process; (b) connecting science teacher identity research and reform recommendations; (c) conducting large-scale, longitudinal and life-history studies; and (d) examining teacher identity enactment in school classrooms.     

我国高等理科教育发展现状:成就与挑战——高等理科教育改革调研专家调查分析

在高等教育扩招的背景下,我国高等理科本科教育发展面临新的挑战。为了全面准确了解现状,推进教育改革发展,"高等理科教育改革调研组"对我国高等理科专家进行了网络问卷调查案例访谈。调查发现:高等理科本科质量仍面临严峻的挑战;高等理科教育要以"激发学习兴趣,培养自主学习能力"为核心目标,建设有利于学生自主发展的条件和环境;建构整体性的学习支持体系;开创革新性的学习工具,让学生能够高效学习海量知识;相关研究要总结并标识理科人才培养模式普遍性的关键特征;加大教学资源投入的制度保障;改革教师教学激励机制,提升教师的教学研究动力和教学能力;加强专业教师的发展和培训。     

Teacher students’ dilemmas when teaching science through inquiry

Background: Inquiry-based science education (IBSE) is suitable to teach scientific contents as well as to foster scientific skills. Similar conclusions are drawn by studies with respect to scientific literacy, motivational aspects, vocabulary knowledge, conceptual understandings, critical thinking, and attitudes toward science. Nevertheless, IBSE is rarely adopted in schools. Often barriers for teachers account for this lack, with the result that even good teachers struggle to teach science as inquiry. More importantly, studies indicate that several barriers and constraints could be ascribed to problems teacher students have at the university stage.

Purpose: The purpose of this explorative investigation is to examine the problems teacher students have when teaching science through inquiry. In order to draw a holistic picture of these problems, we identified problems from three different points of view leading to the research question: What problems regarding IBSE do teacher students have from an objective, a subjective, and a self-reflective perspective?

Design &; method: Using video analysis and observation tools as well as qualitative content analysis and open questionnaires we identified problems from each perspective.

Results: The objectively stated problems comprise the lack of essential features of IBSE especially concerning ‘Supporting pupils’ own investigations’ and ‘Guiding analysis and conclusions.’ The subjectively perceived problems comprise concerns about ‘Teachers’ abilities’ and ‘Pupils’ abilities,’ ‘Differentiated instruction’ and institutional frame ‘Conditions’ while the self-reflectively noticed problems mainly comprise concerns about ‘Allowing inquiry,’ ‘Instructional Aspects,’ and ‘Pupils’ behavior.’

Conclusions: Each of the three different perspectives provides plenty of problems, partially overlapping, partially complementing one another, and partially revealing completely new problems. Consequently, teacher educators have to consider these three perspectives.     

Implementation of inquiry-based science education in different countries: some reflections

In this forum article, I reflect on issues related to the implementation of inquiry-based science education (IBSE) in different countries. Regarding education within the European Union (EU), the Bologna system has in later years provided extended coordination and comparability at an organizational level. However, the possibility of the EU to influence the member countries regarding the actual teaching and learning in the classrooms is more limited. In later years, several EU-projects focusing on IBSE have been funded in order to make science education in Europe better, and more motivating for students. Highlighting what Heinz and her colleagues call the policy of ‘soft governance’ of the EU regarding how to improve science education in Europe, I discuss the focus on IBSE in the seventh framework projects, and how it is possible to maintain more long-lasting results in schools through well-designed teacher professional development programs. Another aspect highlighted by Heinz and her colleagues is how global pressures on convergence in education interact with educational structures and traditions in the individual countries. The rise of science and science education as a global culture, encompassing contributions from all around the world, is a phenomenon of great potential and value to humankind. However, it is important to bear in mind that if science and science education is going to become a truly global culture, local variation and differences regarding foci and applications of science in different cultures must be acknowledged.     

Positioning participation in the NGSS era: What counts as success?

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) strives to shift science learning from the teacher as a single cognitive agent, to a classroom community in which participants are working together in directing the classroom's communal knowledge to figure out questions about how phenomena occur, and building, testing, and refining their ideas to address those questions. To achieve this type of classroom environment, teachers should attend to students' knowledge and ideas and pay attention to how students are located within teacher-led interactions, such as being positioned as active discussants or designated listeners. In this study, we explore if and how this is occurring in the NGSS era. We used a naturalistic inquiry to explore how an experienced first-grade teacher used a new NGSS-aligned unit that called for students to use the science and engineering practices (SEP) to build content knowledge. We used a macro-analytic lens to answer the research question “how are class discussions shaped to address the SEP”? We used a micro-analytic lens to answer the research question “how are students positioned during these science discussions in this classroom?” Evidence suggests that the teachers' whole class discussions incorporated and involved the SEP which were specified in the unit lessons for content learning. However, on a micro-analytic level, we found that few students were positioned as active discussants. The teacher heavily relied on those students who could provide succinct and clearly relevant answers while positioning the remainder of the students as silent spectators. Implications from this research suggest that not only new NGSS curriculum materials need to focus on what students should know and do but they also need to address heuristics for teachers that show them how to position all of their students as active doers of science so all students have opportunities to build deeper, core science knowledge.     

Learning in context: Technology integration in a teacher preparation program informed by situated learning theory

This investigation explores the effectiveness of a teacher preparation program aligned with situated learning theory on preservice science teachers' use of technology during their student teaching experiences. Participants included 26 preservice science teachers enrolled in a 2‐year Master of Teaching program. A specific program goal was to prepare teachers to use technology to support reform‐based science instruction. To this end, the program integrated technology instruction across five courses and situated this instruction within the context of learning and teaching science. A variety of data sources were used to characterize the participants' intentions and instructional practices, including classroom observations, lesson plans, interviews, and written reflections. Data analysis followed a constant comparative process with the goal of describing if, how, and why the participants integrated technology into their instruction and the extent to which they applied, adapted, and innovated upon what they learned in the science teacher preparation program. Results indicate that all participants used technology throughout their student teaching for reform‐based science instruction. Additionally, they used digital images, videos, animations, and simulations to teach process skills, support inquiry instruction, and to enhance student engagement in ways that represented application, adaptation, and innovation upon what they learned in the science teaching methods program. Participants cited several features of the science teacher preparation program that helped them to effectively integrate technology into their instruction. These included participating in science lessons in which technology was modeled in the context of specific instructional approaches, collaborating with peers, and opportunities for feedback and reflection after teaching lessons. The findings of this study suggest that situated learning theory may provide an effective structure for preparing preservice teachers to integrate technology in ways that support reform‐based instruction. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 50:348–379, 2013     

Reconceptualizing Elementary Teacher Preparation: A case for informal science education

The purpose of this case study was to explore the ways in which 3 different informal science experiences in the context of an elementary methods course influenced a group of prospective elementary teachers' ideas about science teaching and learning as well as their understandings about the role of informal science environments to teaching and learning. In order to address this question, data were collected in a period of an academic semester through the following sources: journal entries for each of the 3 experiences, a personal teaching philosophy statement and a 2-hour long semi-structured interview with each of the 12 participants. Open coding techniques were used to analyze the data in order to construct categories and subcategories and eventually to identify emerging themes. The outcomes of the analysis showed that the inclusion of informal science experiences in the context of teacher preparation has the potential to support beginning elementary teachers' development of contemporary ideas about science teaching and learning related to inquiry-based science, the nature of scientific work and the work of scientists, connecting science with everyday life, and making science fun and personally meaningful. These findings are discussed alongside implications for policy, teacher preparation, and research under these themes: (a) addressing reform recommendations; (b) developing positive orientations toward science and science teaching; and (c) constructing understandings about scientists' work.     

Teacher Education Curricula after the Bologna Process – a Comparative Analysis of Written Curricula in Finland and Estonia

During the Bologna process, from 2003 to 2006, degree programmes, including teacher education curricula, were developed in line with the two-tier system – the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) and modularization. The purpose of the present study is to contribute to the development of teacher education profiling measures by comparing the Finnish and Estonian curricula covering initial teacher education. The aim was to analyze and compare studies in the science of education as part of the class teacher education programs through the development of a sufficiently universal meta-structure. The written curricula were subjected to discipline-based content analysis, which covered the main elements of the curricula and the contents of the theoretical substance studies in the science of education. The resulting differences and similarities between the Finnish and the Estonian curricula are reported.     

New Interpretive Methods and Techniques

Environmental education (EE) and social studies education share an interest in behavioral outcomes. This study compares behavioral outcomes—including both self-reported knowledge of actions and reported actions taken—in the context of a land use curriculum enacted in secondary science versus social studies classes with 500 students and nine teachers. Data included pre- and posttests for comparison and intervention groups, classroom observations, and student and teacher interviews. Results indicated that students tended to know and undertake individual rather than collective actions toward sustainable land use. The type of actions students identified varied by course type: when the EE curriculum was presented in science class compared to social studies, students showed less diverse knowledge of actions in support of sustainable land use.     

The Effects of a Web-Based Learning Environment on Student Motivation in a High School Earth Science Course

Collaborating closely with a 10th-grade science teacher, we designed a Web-based learning environment (Web-LE) to improve student motivation to learn science. Factors believed to enhance intrinsic motivation (challenge, control, curiosity, and fantasy) were integrated into the instructional design of the Web-based learning tool. The Web-LE was implemented in the teacher’s 10th-grade classroom as a three-day student-centered learning activity. Data collection methods included individual student interviews, teacher interviews, motivation questionnaires, and observations. This study revealed multiple forms of evidence that the Web-LE and the associated learning activity improved student motivation. This study illustrates the benefits of educational researchers working closely with teachers using design-based research methods to successfully solve instructional problems and identify reusable design principles. Design principles for the integration of intrinsic motivation factors into the development of similar Web-LEs are presented as well as directions far future research.