Science Teachers’ PCK and Teaching Practice: Learning to Scaffold Students’ Open-inquiry Learning

abstract

The present study deals with a school-based in-service course for science teachers, aiming at guiding teachers how to scaffold students’ open-inquiry learning for the topic of water quality. Seven experienced science teachers were involved in the study. Before teaching, the teachers developed several intentions for scaffolding, such as bringing students in a short initial stage of uncertainty regarding the issue how to design a realistic research question and plan, followed by a stage of classroom discussion and useful hints. They also wanted to make go/no-go decisions regularly, and to discuss their decisions with them for reflection purposes. In the classroom, in general, the teachers taught as intended, but some specific deviations were noted. After teaching, the teachers reported to have learnt a lot from their teaching practice, especially regarding scaffolding students by giving them a well-balanced combination of ‘space’ for own contributions at one moment and ‘direction’ at another moment. The implications for science teacher education are identified on the basis of the findings