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Enactment of Scientific Inquiry: Observation of Two Cases at Different Grade Levels in China Mainland

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Abstract

Enactment of scientific inquiry in classroom has attracted a great attention of science educators around the world. In this study, we examined two competent teachers’ (one Grade 9 chemistry teacher and one Grade 4 science teacher) enactment of scientific inquiry in selected teaching units to reveal the characteristics of enacted inquiry at different grade levels by analyzing lesson sequence videos. The coding schemes for enacted inquiry consist of ontological properties and instructional practices. Pre-topic and post-topic teacher interviews and the two teachers’ responses to a questionnaire were adopted to identify the factors influencing teacher’s enactment. The results indicate that the two case teachers’ enactment involved a range of inquiry activities. The enacted inquiry at fourth-grade level covered all the inquiry elements, tending to engage students in the whole procedure of inquiry. The ninth-grade chemistry class placed emphasis on the elements “making plans” to solve problems in authentic context. Important factors influencing the enactment include teacher’s understanding about scientific inquiry, textbooks, assessment, students and resource. Implications for inquiry enactment and instruction improvement have been provided.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Chemistry, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

    Lei Wang, Ronghui Zhang & Weizhen Wang

  2. Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, 3053, Australia

    David Clarke

Authors
  1. Lei Wang
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  2. Ronghui Zhang
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  3. David Clarke
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  4. Weizhen Wang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lei Wang.

Appendix: Interview Protocols and Questionnaire

Appendix: Interview Protocols and Questionnaire

  1. (a)

    Pre-topic Interview Protocol

    1. 1.

      Tell me something about the topic.

    2. 2.

      How do you decide what to teach?

    3. 3.

      Which resources, such as documents or Web sites, did you refer to in planning this topic?

    4. 4.

      What are your main objectives in teaching this topic? What do you hope that your students will learn about this topic?

    5. 5.

      How do you decide how to teach the topic? What activities have you chosen for the teaching of this topic?

    6. 6.

      What do you think are the challenges for the students to learn about this topic?

  2. (b)

    Post-topic Interview Protocol

    1. 1.

      To what extent have you achieved your instructional goals for this unit?

    2. 2.

      How did you know how well you have achieved your instructional goals for this unit?

    3. 3.

      To what extent did assessments of any type influence the planning and the teaching of this unit? And how does it affect any other aspects of teaching beside this topic?

    4. 4.

      What were the key decisions you made during the teaching of this unit?

  3. (c)

    The Teacher Questionnaire for Each Lesson

    1. 1.

      Please describe the subject content of today’s lesson.

    2. 2.

      What was the main thing you wanted students to learn from today’s lesson? Why do you think it is important for students to learn this?

    3. 3.

      To what extent did the students meet your learning goals? How do you know?

    4. 4.

      Please describe what did not go according to your plan.

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Wang, L., Zhang, R., Clarke, D. et al. Enactment of Scientific Inquiry: Observation of Two Cases at Different Grade Levels in China Mainland. J Sci Educ Technol 23, 280–297 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10956-013-9486-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10956-013-9486-0

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