Designing a Course for Enhancing Prospective Teachers’ Inquiry Competence

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a professional development (PD) program on teachers’ development of inquiry competence (inquiry skills, definitions of inquiry, pedagogical content knowledge for teaching science as inquiry). Our approach drew on constructivist learning and situated cognition, built upon nine critical features of effective inquiry PD, and made use of an inquiry-based learning framework reported in the literature. The participants were 72 preservice elementary teachers enrolled in a science method course, within which the PD program was implemented. The course was split in three phases. During Phase 1, teachers as learners engaged in multiple inquiry cycles through a specially designed curriculum. During Phase 2, teachers as thinkers studied the curriculum from its pedagogical rationale, whereas during Phase 3, the teachers as reflective practitioners designed and implemented lesson plans and curriculum materials for the preparation of a student for a science fair project. The constant comparative method and open coding were used for analyzing the data collected from teachers’ definitions of inquiry, reflective diaries, pre- and post-assessment of teachers’ inquiry skills, science fair project work, and end-of-course individual interviews. The findings revealed that a significant number of teachers shifted from naïve to advanced inquiry competence, indicating that the format and structure of the course, in conjunction with the curriculum materials and the teaching approach, significantly influenced prospective teachers’ inquiry skills, definitions of inquiry, and pedagogical content knowledge for teaching science as inquiry. Implications of the findings are discussed in light of how it is best to support prospective teachers in teaching science as inquiry.