Learning to Teach Inquiry:
A Course in Inquiry-Based Science for Future Primary School
Teachers
Angelika Kremer, Mark Walker, Kirsten Schlüter
Biology Didactics Group, Department of Chemistry and Biology, The University of Siegen, Adolf-Reichwein-Str. 2,
57068 Siegen
Email: sekretariat@biologie.uni-siegen.de
Abstract: We developed a course in inquiry-based science for students training to become primary school teachers.
The emphasis of the course was teaching students to do inquiry-based science activities themselves, as this is the
best way of learning how to teach using inquiry-based methods.
Keywords: Inquiry-based science, teacher education, college science, biology, open learning
Introduction
Documents such as the National Science
Education Standards (NRC, 1996) and the
Benchmarks for Science Literacy (AAAS, 1993)
emphasize the importance of teaching science
through inquiry. Despite these recommendations
inquiry-based science is not widely used as a method
for the teaching of science in schools. One of the
possible reasons for this are the teachers responsible
for its use in the classroom (Keys & Bryan,2001).
Teachers may have little experience of conducting
inquiry-based investigations themselves and therefore
have little understanding about what inquiry involves
and how it can be taught.
We decided to tackle this problem by
developing a course in inquiry-based science for
students training to become primary school teachers.
The emphasis of the course is in increasing student’s
own personal experience of inquiry-based science.
The course contains a number of varied and
interesting inquiry-based activities in which students
are expected to participate and complete (TABLE 1).
We feel that these activities more effectively teach
students about inquiry than traditional lecturing.
While completing these inquiry-based
activities students gained practice in using science
process skills, and gained an understanding of how
scientific investigations are conducted. The unique
structure of the course means it could easily be
adapted to teach scientific investigation skills to
students from a variety of scientific disciplines and
not only those planning a teaching career.
Fishy beginnings
The course begins with a simple observation
experiment. In groups of three, students were asked
to observe a fish tank which contained either a Dwarf
Shell Dweller Cichlid (Lamprologus ocellatus) or a
Siamese Fighting Fish (Betta splendens) and to
investigate how each behaved. Students could use a
variety of materials, including shells and brightly
colored paper, but were not told what to do with these
materials or what they should try to find out. The aim
of this activity is to introduce students to more open
methods of learning. Most students beginning the
course are used to doing very structured experiments
during science lessons, and expect to receive a list of
instructions and be told what results they should
expect to find
Many of the students given this activity are
at first perplexed. ‘What do we have to do?’ ‘What
are we supposed to find?’ were common questions.
However, after some time some students started to
experiment without being directed. Some placed
shells in the fish tanks and observed how the fish
swam into them for protection. Others stuck pieces of
colored paper onto the side of the fish tank to see
what reactions it caused in the fish. Some students
began cutting the card into fish shapes and then
seeing how the fish reacted to different sizes and
colors of cardboard fish. Not everything seemed to
work and this worried some students.
The practical work took some time, mainly
because of the hesitancy of the students in deciding
themselves what to do. At the end of the experiment
the idea that in inquiry-based teaching the student
decides what to study, what to do, and what the
answers mean were discussed. This activity has
proved to be a good introduction to open methods of
teaching for students.