Knowing Inquiry as Practice and Theory: Developing a Pedagogical Framework with Elementary School Teachers (original) (raw)
Teachers Developing Exemplary Inquiry Practices
If students are to be successful in the ever-changing scientific world they need to be taught how to think critically, to manipulate materials, and to gather evidence to build knowledge. Most teachers fall short in providing students the inquiry instruction described in the Next Generation Science Frameworks (National Research Council, 2011). This study examined three elementary science teachers' processes as they developed inquiry practices over time. The Electronic Quality of Inquiry Protocol (EQUIP) was used to gather quantitative and qualitative evidence of the teachers' inquiry practices in terms of four factors, Curriculum, Instruction, Discourse, and Assessment. A chronological analysis was used to examine the teachers' professional development and curriculum experiences in relation to their teaching practices. The results showed that all three teachers did change their practice, although the changes varied among cases. For each case, multiple factors influenced the teachers' development. There was a strong positive correlation between the quality of the teachers' inquiry practices and the time spent in curriculum-contextualized professional development. This research indicates that when teachers are supported with curriculum and professional development over extended periods, they develop exemplary inquiry practices. Three recommendations are provided for those interested in implementing science education reform.
Inquiry, knowledge, and practice
… research and educational reform, 1994
Over the past decade there has been renewed interest among teachers, teacher educators, and researchers in exploring the potential of teacher research as a mode of professional development, an avenue for generating practice-based knowledge about teaching, and a catalyst for social change in schools, universities, and communities. In the literature and in popular usage, terms such as "research," "action," "collaborative," "critical," and "inquiry" have been combined with one another and/or with the term "teacher" to signal a wide range of meanings and purposes. These terms and the various ways they are connected reflect surface as well as deeper differences-contrasting paradigms for research, conflicting conceptions of professional development for beginning and experienced teachers, and different assumptions about teachers' roles in the production and use of knowledge. This admixture of terms is not surprising given the complex ideological, multinational, and sociocultural history of efforts by teachers and their school-and university-based colleagues to document, understand, and alter practice. Considered together, the diverse initiatives and conceptions in the burgeoning teacher research movement prompt new questions about how teachers understand their work, how they create and use interpretive frameworks, and how inquiry functions to inform and alter classroom practice as well as the cultures of teaching. In short, current iterations of teacher research have helped to reopen and reframe basic epistemological questions about the relationships that obtain among .inquiry, professional knowledge, and teaching practice and about the implications of these for school reform and social change.
This paper analyses the attempts of an experienced mathematics teacher to apply principles of inquiry based teaching in her practice upon receiving training on the topic. Results of the analysis of teacher’s practices based on her reflective accounts, lesson plan forms and observations of videotaped lessons show that the teacher devotes very little time to non-instructional activities, while instructional ones are in line with activities presumed to be part of the inquiry approach. With respect to the particular Components of Inquiry difference between the two observed lessons was found for the Explain phase of the lesson, although both Explore and Explain phases were consistently coded as higher level order (e.g. students were focused on problem solving, combining and constructing new ideas). The process was also followed by appropriate discursive patterns. Results are discussed in the light of the training received and possible improvements to be made.
One Teacher's Journey toward Inquiry Methods
Proceedings of the 18th International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS), 2024
In response to the increasingly complex social identity development of students, China's education reform focuses on developing students' core competence. The South China PLC is a professional learning community participated by Chinese teachers, which aims to provide support for teachers' professional development, help teachers design and implement inquiry projects, so as to cultivate students' core competence and implement the requirements of education reform. This paper reports on the trajectory of one teacher, Mr. Z, who gradually developed a student-centered teaching philosophy and understanding of inquiry methods with the help of researchers and other participants. Over the course of 2 years, Mr. Z designed and implemented an inquiry curriculum, enacted it in his classroom, then revised the curriculum based on his experience.
Inquiry on Inquiry: Practitioner Research and Pupils' Learning
1 Inquiry on Inquiry 2 How teachers learn to teach and how they should be prepared for teaching are currently matters of great debate and disagreement in the U.S. and a number of other places around the world. Regardless of one's views on these matters, however--and for better or for worse--the current emphasis in the U.S. is on how to recruit, prepare and retain teachers who know how to teach in ways that promote pupils' achievement. 1 Increasingly teachers' learning is being identified as a key factor in enhancing pupils' achievement, particularly teachers' ability to use assessment and other classroom data effectively in order to make decisions about practice . There is often a gap, however, in the ability of novice teachers to understand the rich data sources that are now available to individual teachers and whole school groups (Kennedy, 1999;. This paper begins by describing the epistemological assumptions of practitioner inquiry, a phrase we use as a conceptual umbrella for the various forms and genres of research conducted by practitioners about their own work. The paper also reviews recent research on teachers using classroom and school data to improve pupils' learning. Then the paper describes a mixed methods study carried out by a group of teacher education practitioners/researchers in order to examine how and what teacher candidates learned when they were required to conduct classroom inquiry focused on pupils' learning. The purpose of the study was to explore the outcomes and processes of this new focus and to determine whether the strengths of a long-standing emphasis on practitioner inquiry as a way of knowing about teaching could be retained when the emphasis was shifted from teacher candidates' own learning to the learning of their pupils. Specifically the study examined what happened when teacher candidates were required to conduct classroom inquiry that focused on pupils' learning and what the implications were for the local teacher education program as well as for teacher education more generally. Teachers for a New Era Evidence Team, Boston College, Symposium presented at AERA, April 2007 If you have any questions, please contact us at tne@bc.edu 2 Inquiry on Inquiry 3
Literature review: The role of the teacher in inquiry-based education
Educational Research Review, 2017
Inquiry-based education receives much attention in educational practice and theory, since it provides pupils and teachers with opportunities to actively engage in collaboratively answering questions. However, not only do many teachers find this approach demanding, it also remains unclear what they should do to foster this type of learning in their classrooms. Our research question was: Which teaching strategies are used by K-12 teachers when promoting inquirybased education in their classrooms and what are the reported outcomes? After searching for empirical studies on this topic, we examined 186 studies investigating different ways in which teachers can promote inquiry-based education. Analyses revealed varying teaching strategies, differing with regard to direction (teacher directed, student directed and mixed) and different perspectives of regulation (meta-cognitive, conceptual, and social regulation). Results show that important teacher strategies in metacognitive regulation are: focussing on thinking skills, developing a culture of inquiry, supporting inquiry discourse, and promoting nature of science; in conceptual regulation: providing information on the research topic and focussing on conceptual understanding; and in social regulation: bridging the gap between high and low achievers, organizing student learning in groups and focussing on collaboration processes. Highlights: • Inquiry-based education can be promoted in different ways by teachers in their classrooms • Teachers should give room for more student-direction, and mixed direction • Metacognitive, conceptual and social regulation by the teacher are important
Inquiry as professional development: creating dilemmas through teachers’ work
Teaching and Teacher Education, 2002
Recommendations for professional development call for an alternative structure known as teacher inquiry groups. However, little is known about the contents of these structures. This article reports on a year-long study of one teacher inquiry group. It describes four key activities that served as objects of inquiry. Specifically, this paper explores this question: Do certain activities generate, more than others, the kind of inquiry that places the teachers on a trajectory for reconsidering their beliefs and practices? In contrast to other activities in this study, assessing student work generated debates that enriched the teachers' thinking about what constitutes mathematical understanding. r (M.D. Crockett). 0742-051X/02/$ -see front matter r 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 7 4 2 -0 5 1 X ( 0 2 ) 0 0 0 1 9 -7
Teaching and Learning Inquiry Framework
Journal of Curriculum and Teaching, 2019
This article describes the development of the Teaching and Learning Inquiry Framework (TLIF) and applications forits use. For decades teacher preparation and support has been dictated by a narrow mindset in which academicdisciplines have been taught in isolation. This landscape, however, is evolving to align with the view that the world israrely experienced in disciplinary silos. Interdisciplinary approaches to teaching and learning can enable students tomake more holistic connections to the world around them and be better prepared for college and career. With the recentpublication in the USA of four related standards-based reform documents across each of the core subject areas, teacherpreparation and professional development programs are evolving to offer teachers opportunities to examine theimplications of the new standards. To address these complexities, a guiding conceptual framework is needed thatfocuses in on how inquiry can serve as an entry point to frame the integration of ...