Action Research: First-Year Primary School Science Teachers’ Conceptions on and Enactment of Science Inquiry in Singapore

Abstract

This action research project examines first year science teachers' conceptions of scientific inquiry and their challenges in implementing inquiry-based lessons. Classroom observations and interviews represent two first-year primary school science teachers' conceptions of science as inquiry. Because the current educational landscape emphasizes inquiry-based learning as a foundation of science education, teacher-training in Singapore focuses on augmenting the quality of inquiry-based science lessons. Through a mandatory reduced workload, first-year primary school science teachers can focus on transitioning from being student teachers to full-time teachers. A video of each teacher's lesson was analysed using the EQUIP (Electronic Quality of Inquiry Protocol) instrument. Data analysis of the interviews involved a process of a priori coding based on the essential features of inquiry as well as grounded theory to expose the challenges the teachers faced in their enactment of inquiry-based instruction. Findings suggest that the two first-year teachers formed conceptions of inquiry through their teacher training programs. The teachers revealed three key considerations that affected their practice of inquiry: (1) assessment demands, (2) lack of resources and (3) lack of time to plan and to teach inquiry lessons. Findings in this action research project provide salient implications for other Asian countries which need to improve in-service teacher professional development programs in order to successfully enactment inquirybased instruction.

Effectiveness of a Proposed Training Program to Develop Action Research Skills Among Female Mathematics and Science Teachers in Bisha

“…The results showed the effectiveness of the program based on statistically significant differences between the pre-and posttest means for the cognitive and skills aspects of action research in favor of the post-test. Long and Bae (2018) studied the perceptions of new science teachers in Singapore regarding scientific research and the challenges they faced in implementing lessons based on research and investigation. They recorded a video clip of a lesson for each of the science teachers participating in the study and conducted interviews.…”

Analysis of high school student’s concept mastery in light wave using structured inquiry learning assisted by a virtual laboratory

“…One of them is by framing it in a conceptual change learning approach that allows students to develop new concepts and show the relationships between these concepts [12]. The inquiry is a science learning model that involves students to play an active role in finding the knowledge by asking and responding to questions, designing investigations, evaluating, and communicating their learning [13,14]. Structured inquiry learning is appropriate for high school students because they still need guidance in each inquiry until later they can do self-inquiry from beginning to end [16,17].…”