Inquiry as a context-based practice – a case study of pre-service teachers’ beliefs and implementation of inquiry in context-based science teaching

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study is to provide an understanding of context-based inquiry teaching within a humanistic perspective on science education by studying pre-service teachers’ beliefs about inquiry and their implementations of inquiry in their context-based teaching sequences. Therefore, five pre-service teachers enrolled in a university undergraduate course called ‘Inquiry-based chemistry education II’ (5 ECTS) were involved in an empirical case study. The pre-service teachers’ implementations of inquiry were studied from their reports on self-designed context-based inquiry teaching sequences for students age 13–15, and their beliefs by interviewing them after the course. The results indicate that the most frequent aspects of inquiry, which were implemented, were that inquiry (i) includes a context, (ii) is a way to act, (iii) is a way to think, and (iv) includes source/information evaluation and argumentation. The pre-service teachers’ beliefs about inquiry were shown to reflect manifold aspects of inquiry, such as the difficulty in explaining it. However, this difficulty in encapsulating inquiry into a clear-cut definition is not necessarily an impediment to inquiry-based teaching. Furthermore, inquiry is inherently context-bound, and context-based teaching requires extra-situational knowledge from the context and not only declarative knowledge from science. This should be considered to support effective professional development.

KEYWORDS:

• Teacher beliefs
• inquiry-based learning
• context-based learning
• humanistic perspective

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Note on contributors

Jaana Herranen (M.Sc.) is a Ph.D. student and a teacher in the Unit of Chemistry Teacher Education at the University of Helsinki. Her research interests are inquiry-based science education, student-centred education and education for sustainability.

Päivi Kousa (B Pharm, Ph.D) finished her Ph.D in science education in the Unit of Chemistry Teacher Education at the University of Helsinki. Her research interests are teacher beliefs and professional development, mixed-ability classrooms, STSE issues in chemistry education and school-industry collaboration.

Erik Fooladi (dr. scient.) is an associate professor at Volda University College, where he teaches science education and home economics education. His research interests are inquiry, argumentation and epistemology in the intersections between subject domains. Examples include context-based education, possible relationships between arts and science in teaching and learning, aesthetic and sense experiences in education, and procedural versus theoretical knowledge.

Professor Maija Aksela has a 30-year experience in science education and teacher training in Finland. She is the head of the Unit of Chemistry Teacher Education in the Department of Chemistry, University of Helsinki and LUMA Centre of Finland. Her research interests are, e.g. teacher education and non-formal and informal education.

ORCID

Jaana Herranen http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3059-2900

Päivi Kousa http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1380-3238

Erik Fooladi http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7894-4747

Maija Aksela http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9552-248X