|
|
This is a limited free preview of this book. Please buy full access.
students who enter their program as traditionally minded preservice teachers into reform-minded teachers.
In this study, a new instrument termed the Inquiry Assessment Rubric (IAR) was developed to characterize and analyze preservice science teachers’ beliefs and actions. This instrument, applied to preservice teachers’ philosophies repeatedly over time, student teachers’ inquiry videos, and student teachers’ interviews, along with qualitative analysis of preservice teachers’ interviews, indicated that statistically significant learning took place over time regarding preservice teachers’ understandings about inquiry pedagogy. Most preservice teachers were also able to implement inquiry lessons, although not all felt comfortable and practiced at that time. This study indicates that time, guided practice, and support are needed to develop the ability to teach using inquiry pedagogy as described by the NRC (2000) where learners 1) are engaged by scientific questions, 2) value evidence, 3) formulate explanations from evidence, 4) evaluate explanations, and 5) communicate and justify their proposed explanations.