Examining pre-service elementary school science teachers’ understanding of scientific inquiry Brenda M. Capobianco David Eichinger John Staver Purdue University Paper presented at the annual meeting for the Association of Science Teacher Education, January 9-12, 2008

Purpose of the study Identify and analyze students’ conceptions of inquiry at three different points in the elementary teacher ed program; Identify the nature of students’ conceptions of inquiry; Describe patterns that emerge across students’ inquiry conceptions

Defining inquiry Degree of teacher Degree of student involvement/directionindependence/direction CONFIRMATION STRUCTURED GUIDED INDEPENDENT INQUIRY INQUIRY INQURY Adapted from Brown & Melar, 2006; Crawford, 2007; Keys & Kennedy, 1999, Luera & Otto, 2005; McNeill & Krajcik, 2007; Smolleck, Zembal-Saul & Yoder, 2006; Windschitl, 2003

Theoretical framework Teacher knowledge – PCK = junction at which knowledge of pedagogy, content, and students converge Teacher reasoning – can examine how preservice teachers begin to integrate and apply inquiry-based skills, experiences, and knowledge from their science content courses to the elementary science classroom

Context of the study 1,000 undergraduates in the program 30 faculty 5 faculty from the College of Science 15 credit laboratory-based hrs in science BIO 205 Biology for elementary school teachers EAS 312 Environmental science capstone EDCI 365 Teaching science in the elementary school

Participants Cohort I(BIO 205) 3 males; 5 females [n=8] * Cohort II (EAS 312)3 males; 4 females [n=7] * Cohort III (EDCI 365)4 males; 6 females [n=10] White, Caucasian * Change of major participant

Data collection Individual semi-structured interview – 2 interviews/semester – 62 interviews (total) Individual inquiry tasks (stay tuned ) – 4 tasks/semester – 124 tasks (total) On-line assessment (stay tuned ) – 2 assessments/semester – 62 assessments (total)

Data analysis Grounded theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1998) Triangulation (Lincoln & Guba, 1985) Trustworthiness (Glesne, 1999; Lincoln & Guba, 1985) – “audit” fieldwork – member checking

Elementary education students’ conceptions of inquiry Cohorts I and II Int Cohort I (biology)Cohort II (env’l science) 1 having a question asking or designing a question questions to figure out stuff exploring or just finding out let students do an investigation investigating, researching, recording, reporting explore something on your own asking questions, measuring temperature, recording, looking at data 2 asking questions finding out something exploring exploring a question taking a question, investigating it using data to answer a question, measuring, collecting, & recording data

Examples of inquiry-based experiences Cohorts I and II Int Cohort I (biology)Cohort II (env’l science) 1 doing a simple experiment  How fast do different objects fall? science fair projects measuring dissolved oxygen in a local stream studying local heat islands 2 observing animal interactions in a model ecosystem testing the effect of heat and light on isopods collecting and classifying leaves measuring heat islands in buildings testing water quality in local streams

Elementary education students’ conceptions of inquiry Cohort III Int Cohort IIIExamples 1 asking questions exploring finding answers working on problems hands on learning exploring phenomena lab experiences in science anything hands on working with light bulbs testing magnets building simple circuits exploring shadows during different times of the day 2 posing questions exploring questions students doing their own learning letting students learn on their own model ecosystem environmental science project

Conceptualizing and characterizing inquiry Abilities Continuum of how Cohorts I, II, and III conceptualize inquiry ConfirmationStructuredGuidedOpen ConceptualizingI (pre)I (post) Inquiry II (pre) II (post) III (pre) III (post)

Conclusions Students’ conceptions mature as they progress through the program and key courses Students’ knowledge of inquiry pedagogy is most pronounced by their methods course Students reported inquiry-based experiences from one of three possible sources: 1.academic courses * 2.professional activities 3.practical experiences

Significance & Implications By experiencing inquiry curricula and pedagogy in their respective science courses, students’ conceptions of inquiry shifted from a less structured toward a more open inquiry stance Deepening content knowledge through inquiry needs to be examined How conceptions translate into practice needs to be explored