Research in the field of school curriculum and national organizations such as the National Council for the Social Studies and the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics support the use of inquiry-based curriculum in schools. However, due to the policy constraints of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), inquiry-based curriculum is not common in schools. Within these policy constraints, school principals often turn to reform models to increase student achievement on high-stakes assessments. One particular reform model, the International Baccalaureate Program (IB), requires an inquiry-based curriculum as well as teacher inquiry. Using qualitative inquiry and a normative framework based on Dewey’s theory of inquiry, this study reveals how students and teachers inquire in a high poverty, IB elementary school in Georgia. It also addresses the conditions that influence and hinder inquiry in the school.

In an effort to improve mathematics instruction, I studied how the positions students choose or are pressed to take on can lead to failure in an inquiry-based classroom. Positioning refers to the temporary roles that a student or a teacher can place each other in or take on in a given classroom environment. Since positions are constructed and maintained by language use, I drew from positioning theory and discourse theory for my theoretical framework. From analyzing transcripts of classroom episodes and interviews with the teacher and a student, I identified common positions that the teacher and the student took on. I also looked at how these positions were negotiated in the classroom. I give a specific example of how positions could negatively change between the teacher and the student. The teacher went from a position that supported inquiry-based instruction to a position that supported traditional instruction, and the student went from a position that supported learning to a position that was detrimental to learning. The positions and the negotiation of positions impacted learning and helped to explain why the student might be failing. I found that positions changed (for better or worse) because of specific pressures, which I analyzed. For instance, when the teacher and the student succumbed to specific pressures and stepped out of certain positions, the teacher felt ineffective and the student engaged in less desirable positions that hinder learning. From this study, we can learn how to better address student and teacher failure in an inquiry-based classroom. These results have significant implications for research, teaching, and teacher education. Therefore, positioning is vital to the implementation of inquiry-based instruction in that it can either maintain or undermine it.

This ethnographic study of emerging inquiry-based science instruction in an urban, low socioeconomic elementary school science lab was designed to gain insight into the perspectives of the teacher and students. The study involved a Central Florida elementary school whose population was over 80 percent African-American. In this six month study, the researcher examined the classroom setting of a science lab teacher and her fourth and fifth grade students during a six month period of time. Data sources included interviews, field notes, reflections, and student work , which were used to identify the emerging themes and patterns in the study. The emergent themes were grouped into two categories: the perspective of the teacher and students in the inquiry environment and the microculture of the teacher and students in that environment. The teacher’s perspectives on instructional strategies, standard based instructional guidelines, and the realities of teaching in an urban low socioeconomic setting were the major emergent themes. The students’ perspectives into environment and sense-making of elementary school students were the other major emergent themes. Chapter I provides background and the significance of the study. Chapter II provides a research of the literature surrounding inquiry-based instruction in science education. Chapter III describes the methodology, specifically the ethnographic approach to this study. A metaphoric journey down the river of perspectives in science lab classroom sets the tone for Chapter IV. This chapter provides a "view from the shore," an introduction to the general background of the elementary school. Chapter V explores the teacher perspectives, and uses vignettes to analyze instructional strategies, questioning, assessment, standards state and district guideline and the realities of teaching. Chapter VI discusses the student perspectives, and uses vignettes to analyze behaviors and actions, responsibility of learners, assessment, and ways of knowing. Chapter VII pulls together conclusions, implications, and recommendations for further research.This study contributes to the total body of research of science education in two ways: 1. It provides student and teacher perspectives on science in an urban, low socioeconomic elementary school. 2. It provides research with a teacher and student perspective of inquiry-based science instruction.

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<p>Jedna od &scaron;iroko zastupljenih metoda za uspe&scaron;nu&nbsp;realizaciju ciljeva naučnog obrazovanja je&nbsp;istraživačka&nbsp; metoda&nbsp; (Inquiry-based instruction),&nbsp;<br />koja se defini&scaron;e kao uključivanje učenika u&nbsp;proces aktivnog učenja kroz postavljanje&nbsp;<br />pitanja, analizu podataka i kritičko mi&scaron;ljenje. Problem ovog istraživanja bio je kako&nbsp;<br />primenom istraživačke metode u razrednoj&nbsp;nastavi&nbsp; povećati postignuća i motivisanost&nbsp;učenika u oblasti prirodnih nauka.</p><p>U teorijskom delu rada analiziran je&nbsp;konstruktivizam kao pedago&scaron;ka osnova&nbsp;<br />kvalitetnog naučnog obrazovanja,&nbsp; Principi i&nbsp;velike ideje naučnog obrazovanja kao osnova za&nbsp;pravilan izbor sadržaja, oblici, karakteristike i&nbsp;modeli istraživačkog učenja i poučavanja,&nbsp;kompetencije nastavnika i načini praćenja i&nbsp;vrednovanja postignuća učenika.&nbsp;</p><p>U empirijskom delu rada prikazani su rezultati&nbsp;pedago&scaron;kog eksperimenta sa paralelnim&nbsp;grupama u kome je proučavana primena&nbsp;istraživačke metode&nbsp; na fizičkim sadržajima&nbsp; u&nbsp;nastavi Prirode i dru&scaron;tva, i njen doprinos&nbsp;efikasnijem sticanju znanja, umeća i navika&nbsp;učenika, povećanju kvaliteta i kvantiteta&nbsp;njihovog znanja, kao i razvoju &nbsp;motivacije za rad&nbsp;u poređenju sa tradicionalnim pristupom. Za&nbsp;potrebe istraživanja oblikovani su inovativni&nbsp;nastavni modeli, testovi znanja i ankete za&nbsp;učenike i roditelje. &nbsp;Uzorak istraživanja činilo je&nbsp;112 učenika iz osam odeljenja četvrtih razreda&nbsp;dve osnovne &nbsp;&scaron;kole u Somboru.&nbsp;</p><p>Rezultati istraživanja su pokazali da primena&nbsp;istraživačke metode u nastavnoj praksi&nbsp;<br />pozitivno utiče na kvalitet i kvantitet stečenih&nbsp;znanja i umeća i da značajno doprinosi&nbsp;povećanju motivacije učenika za izučavanje&nbsp;fizičkih sadržaja. Ovim putem provereni i&nbsp;potvrđeni&nbsp; inovativni nastavni modeli mogu da&nbsp;nađu svoje mesto u nastavnoj praksi i tako&nbsp;doprinesu kvalitetnijoj realizaciji nastave&nbsp;prirodnih nauka, a time i povećanju &nbsp;naučne&nbsp;pismenosti veće populacije učenika.</p> / <p>Inquiry-based instruction is one of the widely used methods&nbsp; for the successful&nbsp; realization of the science teaching goals. It is defined as involving pupils into the&nbsp; process of active learning by asking questions, data analysis and critical thinking.&nbsp; The problem of this research is how the application of inquiry-based instruction in classroom teaching increases pupils&rsquo; motivation and achievement in the field of<br />natural sciences.</p><p>In the theoretical part of the paper the constructivism as a pedagogical basis of quality scientific education,&nbsp; Principles and great ideas of scientific education&nbsp; as a basis for right choice of contents, forms, characteristics and models of inquiry teaching&nbsp; and learning are analyzed, as well as teacher competence and ways of monitoring&nbsp; and evaluating of pupils&rsquo; achievement.</p><p>In the empirical part of the paper the results of pedagogical experiment with parallel groups is presented. In that experiment was studied the implementation of&nbsp; Inquiry-based instruction on physics contents in teaching Nature and Society in classroom teaching, and its contribution to the efficient acquiring knowledge, skills and habits of pupils, increasing the quality and quantity of their knowledge, as well as the developing the motivation to work, in comparison with the traditional approach. For the purposes of this research innovative teaching models, knowledge tests and&nbsp;questionnaire for pupils and parents were designed. The study sample consisted of 112 pupils from eight fourth-grade classes from two primary schools in Sombor.</p><p>The research results showed that the implementation of Inquiry-based instruction in teaching practice positively affects the quality and quantity of acquired knowledge and skills of pupils and significantly contributes to increasing pupils&rsquo; motivation for studying physics contents. Hereby tested and validated innovative teaching models can find their place in the teaching practice and thus contribute to better realization of teaching science, and thus increase scientific literacy of larger population of pupils.</p>

The purposes of this study were to explore understanding of preservice science teachers&rsquo / (PSTs) nature of science (NOS) views during the explicit-reflective and inquiry-based laboratory instruction and investigate PSTs&rsquo / perspectives and experiences related to learning NOS aspects in the science laboratory course. This study was carried out during the Laboratory Application in Science II course. A total of 45 PSTs participated to the study. The design of the study was qualitative and exploratory in nature. In the initial phase of the study, the researcher collected qualitative data with open-ended questionnaire to explore PSTs&rsquo / NOS views. Then, during the semester, reflection papers were collected to understand PSTs&rsquo / experiences with the intervention and to detect development about each NOS aspect. At the end of the semester, qualitative questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were conducted to determine the impact of the explicit-reflective and inquiry-based laboratory instruction. The results showed that all of the PSTs were able to make appropriate connections among the laboratory activities and the targeted NOS aspects at the end of the instruction. In addition, many PSTs developed their understanding levels of each aspect of nature of science. Moreover, findings revealed that some of the PSTs made connections among NOS aspects. Three main factors / discussions and presentations, using inquiry skills, and doing inquiry-based laboratory activities were determined as provide to PSTs to develop their NOS understanding. Furthermore, at the end PSTs developed their perspectives about teaching NOS.

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to examine the impact of a long-term, 5E inquiry-based professional development on content and pedagogical knowledge in eighth-grade science teachers in Texas. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected via university designed reflective prompts, science content pretests and post-tests, and a classroom observation instrument. Results showed the professional development had a statistically significant impact on teachers' content knowledge in earth science, less significant impact in content knowledge in physical science and that teachers' levels of inquiry-based practice were in the early stages. The teachers' reflections of the professional development's impact indicated self-identified growth in their content knowledge and an impact on their understanding of inquiry-based classroom instructional practice. The findings suggest inquiry-based professional development has an impact on teachers' content and pedagogical knowledge, specifically regarding conveying content effectively, concept interconnection, lesson design, and teachers' opportunities to experience inquiry-based learning themselves before implementing it in their classrooms. The study's implications for further research include examinations of professional learning opportunities at local district and campus levels to identify and incorporate science teachers' existing levels of content and inquiry-based pedagogical knowledge and provide opportunities for practice to incorporate the pedagogy in classrooms.

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