Dimensions and Modalities of Inquiry-Based Teaching: Understanding the Variety of Practices

Figures & data

Table 1. The Six-Dimensional Model of Inquiry-Based Science Teaching

Teacher- and content- centred modalities (1 & 2)		Student- and learning- centred modalities (3 & 4)
Dimension 1: Who initiates the questioning?
1.1. Teachers elaborate the questioning on their own	1.2. Teachers elaborate the questioning after considering students’ concerns	1.3. Students’ questioning is fostered through a challenging situation elaborated by teachers	1.4. Students elaborate their own questioning from a theme introduced by teachers
Dimension 2: What is the nature of the problem?
2.1. Closed problem: students have to follow a narrow protocol	2.2. Partially closed problem: students need to elaborate their own hypothesis and protocol within a well-known situation	2.3. Partially open-ended problem: students have to cope with an open task and limited material already prepared	2.4. Open-ended problem: students need to elaborate their own hypothesis and protocol
Dimension 3: To what extent are students responsible for the inquiry?
3.1. Teachers steer students through all the different stages of the formal inquiry process	3.2. Teachers guide students towards different ways to achieve the task	3.3. Students are responsible for the inquiry	3.4. Students rely on material which enables them to check their learning outcomes
Dimension 4: How is student diversity of knowledge, needs and intentions handled?
4.1. Teachers cope with specific pupils’ behaviour in order to involve them in the inquiry	4.2. Teachers alter the task ‘on the fly’ in order to maintain specific students’ involvement	4.3. Each individual student or student team receives supervision from teachers	4.4. Students with specific needs or interests rely on planned adaptation of the inquiry situation
Dimension 5: What is the role of argumentation?
5.1. Teachers facilitate exchanges among students	5.2. Teachers communicate students’ propositions to the whole class	5.3. Students are encouraged to consider their schoolmates’ assumptions, results and conclusions	5.4. Students are asked to justify their conclusions with respect to knowledge or evidence
Dimension 6: How are the teacher's goals made explicit?
6.1. Teachers communicate to the students their goals and expectations for the current lesson	6.2. Teachers make explicit the learning outcomes of the inquiry session	6.3. Students are asked to make explicit what they have learned during the inquiry session	6.4. Students develop explicit knowledge and meta-knowledge which result from the inquiry session and will be useful for further situations and problems

Table 2. A new science teacher's professional knowledge regarding the four modalities of dimension 4 (How is student diversity of knowledge, needs and intentions handled?)

4.1- Teachers cope with specific pupils’ behaviour in order to involve them within the inquiry.
Goal	To support a pupil who encounters difficulties and to help him or her enter into the inquiry process
Cue	Some pupils are bogged down
Repertoire of actions	I restore their confidence I support really them
Reference knowledge	I think it is crucial to begin by restoring their confidence: during peer-work they will understand that they are allowed and have the ability to propose their own questions and solutions. After that, learning and teaching could run more easily.
4.2- Teachers alter the task ‘on the fly’ in order to maintain specific students' involvement.
Goal	To maintain the activity of pupils who have completed the task before others
Cue	Some pupils are very advanced and there is a gap with other teams
Repertoire of actions	I propose another activity which complements the first
Reference knowledge	I always try to have complementary activities for the teams who solve or complete the inquiry before the others
4.3- Each individual student or student team receives supervision from teachers.
Goal	To create pupil teams
Cue	When I want to promote exchange and discussion amongst pupils
Repertoire of actions	I let pupils create the teams with their preferred mates
Reference knowledge	The classroom is noisiest with this way of creating teams but the inquiry runs well. When I create teams by myself, it doesn't work as well.
4.4- Students with specific needs or interests rely on planned adaptation of the inquiry situation.
Goal	Enabling low achieving pupils to express their opinions
Cue	When a low achieving pupil is trying to express his or her opinion
Repertoire of actions	I give time for him or her to finish an explanation
Reference knowledge	This student is bored when other pupils are speaking, and the others are bored when this one is speaking… But during IBST it's good to make an effort so this student can express opinions.

Table 3. Number of teacher professional knowledge units for the three types of science teachers [N=18] with respect to the four modalities of the six-dimensional model of inquiry-based science teaching

Dimensions	1. Origin ofs Questioning				2. Nature of Problem				3. Students’ Level of Responsibility				4. Handling of Students’ Diversity				5. Development of Argumentation				6. Explanation of Teacher's Goals
Modalities	1	2	3	4	1	2	3	4	1	2	3	4	1	2	3	4	1	2	3	4	1	2	3	4
CST [N=6]	2	8	–	–	2	4	1	1	18	14	6	4	18	8	11	3	10	3	6	7	–	10	1	4
NST [N=6]	6	1	–	–	–	6	–	–	14	11	5	–	14	4	15	1	5	15	6	1	–	9	–	–
EST [N=6]	6	–	2	1	3	8	–	–	22	9	6	2	11	13	16	1	7	8	3	2	7	10	–	–
Total of modalities 1 & 2 per dimension
	23				23				88				68				48				36
Total of modalities 3 & 4 per dimension
	3				2				23				47				25				5
Total of teacher professional knowledge units per dimension
	26				25				111				115				73				41

Note: CST=committed science teachers; NST=new science teachers; EST=experienced science teachers

Table 4. Distribution of teacher professional knowledge units and chi-square contribution of each cell per modality

		Modality 1	Modality 2	Modality 3	Modality 4	Total
CST [N=6]	observed	50	47	25	19	141
	expected	52.29	50.85	28.13	9.74
	contribution	0.100	0.291	0.348	8.813
NST [N=6]	observed	39	46	26	2	113
	expected	41.91	40.75	22.54	7.80
	contribution	0.201	0.677	0.530	4.316
EST [N=6]	observed	56	48	27	6	137
	expected	50.81	49.40	27.33	9.46
	contribution	0.531	0.040	0.004	1.266
	Total	145	141	78	27	391

Note. CST=committed science teachers; NST=new science teachers; EST=experienced science teachers

Table 5. Number of teachers performing in each modality for at least two dimensions

Modality	1	2	3	4	1 or 2	3 or 4
CST [N=6]	1	3	4	3	4	7
NST [N=6]	0	6	4	0	6	4
EST [N=6]	3	5	1	1	8	4

Note. CST=committed science teachers; NST=new science teachers; EST=experienced science teachers