There has been a declining interest in science by adolescents as they mature in the American school system (Anderman & Young, 1994). Inquiry-based teaching is a supported practice with the aim of shifting science teaching to better engage students. This study offers a qualitative analysis of teachers’ perceptions and implementation of inquiry-based teaching in secondary classrooms by examining perceptions, co-planning, assessment selection, and classroom instruction. By using survey data, applying the Science Teacher Inquiry Rubric (STIR) as an observation tool, and collecting qualitative data from teacher planning documents and assessments, the present study fills a critical gap in inquiry-based teaching scholarship. The results show that teachers think that inquiry involves student-centered activities and curricular agency, that the teacher’s role is that of a facilitator, and that inquiry yields a practice or product. Teachers use online resources and previously outlined units and focus their attention on student outcome goals during co-planning sessions. The STIR data revealed that the student assessments and classroom experiences were teacher-centered. / Educational Leadership

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<p>The attached thesis consists of a literature review of inquiry-based learning levels and two studies examining the impact of inquiry-based learning levels on student engagement, interest, and motivation in an animal science context. </p>

This research study explored the role of the elementary art educator in facilitating individualized learning experiences for students in contrast to a standardized culture of education. The methodology of a/r/tography was used to investigate the role of the teacher, as well as artist and researcher, within an inquiry-based art curriculum for a fifth grade class. Inspired by contemporary art practices, students used inquiry to investigate, research and experiment with their ideas around an integrated topic of compare and contrast as found within the fifth grade science and language arts standards. Students created a work of art as a means to inquire or in reaction to an inquiry. This study hopes to persuade educators, specifically elementary art educators, to guide students toward personal and meaningful learning.

Students do not always evaluate explanations based on the mathematics despite their teacher's effort to be the guide-on-the-side and delegate evaluation to the students. This case study examined how the use of three features of the Discourse—authority, sociomathematical norms, and classroom mathematical practices—impacted students' evaluation and contributed to students' failure to evaluate. By studying three pre-service elementary school students' evaluation methods, it was found that the students applied different types of each of the features of the Discourse and employed them at different times. The way that the features of the Discourse were used contributed to some of the difficulties that the participants experienced in their evaluation of explanations. The results suggest that researchers in the field must come to believe that resistance to teaching methods is not the only reason for student failure to evaluate mathematical explanations and that authority is operating in the classroom even when the teacher is acting as the guide on the side. The framework developed for the study will be valuable for researchers who continue to use for their investigation of individual student's participation in mathematical activity.

The purpose of the study was to examine college science professors’ beliefs regarding the use of inquiry in the college science classroom, how these beliefs impacted their instructional choices and how these beliefs were enacted in the classroom. Additional questions were how teachers’ beliefs vary across institution types (community college, private, four year college, and large research institution), and how beliefs vary across disciplines (life sciences and physical sciences). A case study design was required for this study due to the complexity of the topic and different data sources needed to answer the fore stated research questions. These data sources included surveys, interviews, classroom and laboratory observations and written records such as laboratory activities and syllabi. Twelve college professors at three different institutions; large research institution, small, private four year college and community college were interviewed. In addition to interviews, classes and labs were observed, a questionnaire on the five essential features of inquiry was given and samples of labs and syllabi were obtained. A laboratory coordinator was also interviewed as she was responsible for the laboratory section for two of the professors at the research institution. All schools were located in the southeast United States. The perception of inquiry by college science professors has been found to be a barrier to the inclusion of inquiry in college classrooms and was supported in the current study. While the professors described constraints to inquiry such as large class size, lack of time, disinterest of students, and lack of equipment, these limitations were due, in part, to the professors’ incomplete view of inquiry as what researchers do. This view was most pronounced with the professors at the large, research institution. At the research institution, observations in the classroom mirrored the beliefs of inquiry. Lecture was the primary instruction in the science classroom, and the labs were scripted and shown to be “cookbook” with little or no evidence of inquiry noted in the labs iv obtained. There was more evidence of inquiry at the private four-year college and community college than at the large research institution; what was observed in the classroom mirrored what the professors believed about inquiry. There was a difference in the beliefs between institutions with the professors at the research institution holding an incomplete view of inquiry while the professors at the private college and community college included many aspects of the inquiry continuum in their view of inquiry. There were no differences noted between disciplines.

One alternatively certified elementary teacher was the subject of this sixteen week research study on science teaching self-efficacy. The researcher taught inquiry based student level science lessons to the fourth grade teacher. The teacher participant, in turn, taught those same lessons to her class while the researcher observed and took field notes. The participant responded to specific open ended questions in a journal after each science experience and also completed three interviews with the researcher. Each sequential lesson from the researcher was then modified based on participant needs. The participant completed the STEBI (Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument) as a pre and post test to measure the effects of the above mentioned activities. The collected data from the STEBI was reported quantitatively. The collected data from the reflective journal entries and interviews were reported qualitatively. After careful analysis of the data gathered for this case study, the researcher came to the conclusion that inquiry based professional development through the use of a mentor affected the alternatively certified elementary teacher's science teaching self-efficacy. The subject maintained a positive attitude about the use of a mentor for the duration of the study and her Personal Science Teaching Efficacy increased or stayed the same on all of the STEBI questions. Limitations of the study as well as recommendations for further research were also discussed.

The purpose of this study is to exemplify how the didactic model organized purposes can be used as support for professional experimentation to develop teaching with the working methods of natural science as a content in the primary school. We have done a didactic modeling with the exemplification phase as a research approach. Inspiration has been taken from action research in the research design. With this approach, we have exemplified how the didactic model organized purposes can be used as support in the planning, implementation and evaluation of teaching. To exemplify how organizing purposes provided support in didactic analysis and design of teaching, we completed two complete and started third teaching cycle. In each full cycle, we did an instructional design and then analyzed the outcome using organized objectives. We started the third cycle by making a design proposal. The teaching design was carried out in two different classes in year three at two different schools. Twelve students participated in the first cycle and fourteen students in the second. The content of the scientific method we wanted to teach was the need for control of variables to make fair tests. Implementation was recorded using film recording which was then analyzed using the conceptual apparatus for organizing purposes; overall purpose, proximate purpose, goal-in-sight and continuity. The exemplification shows that organizing purposes provided support for students and for us to teach goal oriented. In the analysis, the conceptual apparatus was a support for seeing parts that can be improved and developed in the teaching design. Our conclusion is that the didactic model organizing purposes can be seen as a successful tool and as a support for teachers to develop their teaching with a science approach as a content in the primary school curriculum. / Syftet med denna studie är att exemplifiera hur den didaktiska modellen organiserande syften kan användas som stöd för lärarprofessionen för att utveckla undervisning med naturvetenskapens arbetssätt som ett innehåll i lågstadiet. Vi har gjort en didaktisk modellering med exemplifieringsfasen som forskningsansats. Inspiration har hämtats från aktionsforskning i forskningsdesignen. Med denna ansats har vi exemplifierat hur den didaktiska modellen organiserande syften kan användas som stöd i planering, genomförande och utvärdering av undervisning. För att exemplifiera hur organiserande syften gav stöd i en didaktisk analys och design av undervisning gjorde vi två hela och påbörjat tredje undervisningscykel. I varje hel cykel gjorde vi en undervisningsdesign och analyserade sedan utfallet med hjälp av organiserande syften. Den tredje cykeln påbörjade vi genom att göra ett förslag på design. Undervisningsdesignen genomfördes i två olika klasser i årskurs tre på två olika skolor. I första cykeln deltog tolv elever och i den andra fjorton elever. Innehållet om det naturvetenskapliga arbetssättet vi ville undervisa var behovet av kontroll av variabler för att göra rättvisa test. Genomförande spelades in med hjälp av filminspelning som sedan analyserades med hjälp av begreppsapparaten i organiserande syften; övergripande syfte, närliggande syfte, mål-i-sikte och kontinuitet. Exemplifieringen visar att organiserande syften gav stöd för att stötta elever och för oss att undervisa målinriktat. I analysen var begreppsapparaten ett stöd för att få syn på delar som kan förbättras och utvecklas i undervisningsdesignen. Vår slutsats är att den didaktiska modellen organiserande syften kan ses som ett framgångsrikt verktyg och som ett stöd för lärare för att utveckla sin undervisning med ett naturvetenskapligt arbetssätt som ett innehåll i lågstadiet.

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