Putting inquiry-based learning into practice: How teachers changed their beliefs and attitudes through a professional development program

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Despite the tremendous efforts which have been made over the last few years, inquiry-based learning (IBL) has not become an established practice in science education yet. Even if teachers consider IBL an important and valuable approach, they still refrain from implementing it in their own science classes. Research findings suggest that the teachers' beliefs and attitudes have a crucial influence on their classroom practice. Only if they are compatible with the approach of IBL, the teachers will be willing to implement IBL in their own classes. This article demonstrates how the beliefs and attitudes of three Austrian chemistry teachers changed over the period of a 9-monthly professional development program (PDP). In order to ascertain their beliefs and attitudes regarding IBL previous to and after the PDP, we conducted a group discussion and three individual interviews. The statements from both dates were analyzed using a qualitative content analysis and indicate substantial changes concerning the teachers' beliefs about the efficacy, capability and practicability of IBL. After participating in the PDP, the teachers took a more positive attitude regarding both IBL in general and its implementation. Considering the findings from this study, we formulate implications for designing PDP at the end.

Original languageEnglish
Article number20180030
JournalChemistry Teacher International
Volume1
Issue number2
Pages (from-to)1-11
Number of pages11
ISSN2569-3263
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01.12.2019
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This research project arised from TEMI (Teaching Enquiry with Mysteries Incorporated), a project under the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7, Science in Society) of the European Commission, Grant Agreement ID: 321403.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 IUPAC & De Gruyter, Berlin/Boston.

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