Abstract:

Science plays an important role in everyday life, where citizens are asked to know how to approach phenomena and problems from a scientific point of view. Our society is characterised, however, by a decline in the interest of young people in scientific disciplines and overall low levels of science achievements. In this scenario, there is a need for teachers to reflect on their role and on their teaching methods.

In many national and international standards, as well as in the literature, it is agreed that the most effective approaches in science education are those based on inquiry. In fact, inquiry-based learning (IBL) not only allows to build scientific knowledge in a meaningful way, but also enables the students to understand the way in which scientific knowledge is built, favouring the development of interest and motivation towards scientific disciplines. However, despite the importance acknowledged to IBL, there are many accounts revealing that IBL is still rarely understood and adopted in the classroom. The factors contributing to this situation are many, from the difficulties and hurdles met by the teachers to their beliefs (including self-efficacy beliefs) about teaching science as inquiry.

In this contribution we present the development and pilot testing of a questionnaire aimed at revealing primary teachers’ conceptions and beliefs about IBL, their actual practice and the difficulties they encounter in using IBL at school. The questionnaire was constructed considering the literature and the most relevant international documents, in particular the Framework for K-12 Science Education and the scientific practices described there as the practices of inquiry (asking questions; developing and using models; planning and carrying out investigations; analysing and interpreting data; using mathematics and computational thinking; constructing explanations; engaging in argumentation from evidence; obtaining, evaluating and communicating information).

The instrument is structured in five sections, investigating the following dimensions:
(1) teachers’ conceptions about IBL,
(2) the scientific (inquiry) practices adopted by teachers in the classroom,
(3) teachers’ perception about their science teaching and inquiry skills,
(4) the difficulties teachers encounter in teaching science as inquiry and
(5) the teachers’ professional development needs concerning teaching science as inquiry.

The questionnaire was administered to 12 teachers in two primary schools in Italy. After they had completed the questionnaire, individual interviews were conducted in order to delve into the teachers’ responses and interpret their answers.

The results suggest that teachers generally recognise the effectiveness of IBL and make use of some practical work in their classrooms, but at the same time there is little clarity on the definition of IBL and on how to implement it. The interviewed teachers claim they adopt most of the practices of inquiry, but the meaning of these practices seems to be rather unclear to them. Moreover, they state they feel confident mostly in “explaining” or in generic pedagogical practices, rather than in the practices of inquiry. The main reported difficulties regard organisational issues (time and facilities), while few teachers recognise a personal lack of inquiry competences as the main hurdle to adopt IBL. However, they agree that a specifically designed professional development could help them implementing IBL as a regular practice.

Keywords:

Inquiry-based learning, in-service teachers, primary school.