Learning to teach science as inquiry in the rough and tumble of practice

TLDR

Interns’ teaching strategies ranged from traditional lecture‑driven lessons to innovative, full‑inquiry projects despite support from a professional development school setting. The study examined five prospective teachers’ knowledge, beliefs, and efforts to enact science as inquiry over a one‑year high‑school fieldwork experience, exploring how their beliefs, understanding, classroom practices, and mentor influences shape their intentions and abilities. Data were collected through interviews, field notes, and artifacts as the teachers engaged in learning to teach science, with a focus on methodological issues in examining beliefs and knowledge in practice. The study found that a teacher’s complex personal beliefs about teaching and science critically influence their intentions and abilities to teach science as inquiry. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., J Res Sci Teach 44: 613–642.

Abstract

Abstract This study examined the knowledge, beliefs and efforts of five prospective teachers to enact teaching science as inquiry, over the course of a one‐year high school fieldwork experience. Data sources included interviews, field notes, and artifacts, as these prospective teachers engaged in learning how to teach science. Research questions included 1) What were these prospective teachers' beliefs of teaching science? 2) To what extent did these prospective teachers articulate understandings of teaching science as inquiry? 3) In what ways, if any, did these prospective teachers endeavor to teach science as inquiry in their classrooms? 4) In what ways did the mentor teachers' views of teaching science appear to support or constrain these prospective teachers' intentions and abilities to teach science as inquiry? Despite support from a professional development school setting, the Interns' teaching strategies represented an entire spectrum of practice—from traditional, lecture‐driven lessons, to innovative, open, full‐inquiry projects. Evidence suggests one of the critical factors influencing a prospective teacher's intentions and abilities to teach science as inquiry, is the teacher's complex set of personal beliefs about teaching and of science. This paper explores the methodological issues in examining teachers' beliefs and knowledge in actual classroom practice. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 44: 613–642, 2007.