| Chapter 1: | Introduction |
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components of new curricula in 1990, showing only slightly better results in effectiveness compared to traditional curricula and the recent efforts of the National Science Foundation (NSF) to fund grants specifically dealing with professional development in science education. This points to the continued problem of lack of professional development accompanying new curricula implementation. Therefore, the 3-semester sequence of secondary science methods courses along with one semester of secondary science student teaching seminar at The University of Iowa is an important aspect of this study in terms of an extended period of professional development time. Data gathering would be necessary to see if a 4-semester sequence of a “spiraled” curriculum, where the understandings and pedagogy of inquiry is revisited, is beneficial or necessary to students’ development regarding inquiry.
Statement of the Problem
This examination of the development of preservice teachers’ inquiry understandings and development of methods and skills over the course of four semesters in the secondary science teacher education program at The University of Iowa measures the preservice teachers’ understandings of inquiry and development of specific inquiry components in their science lessons. Observation of the student teachers’ instruction using videotapes, written artifacts of teaching philosophies, and information from interviews with preservice students are the means by which data were gathered. The IAR (see appendix C) was written and utilized by several researchers in scoring students’ abilities to teach using inquiry methods. The overarching question was: “How do preservice secondary science teachers change in their understandings and actions regarding inquiry instruction in the science classroom?”