The Drive: A Beginning Teacher's Reflections on Inquiry-Based Teaching and Feelings of Self-Efficacy

Abstract

Beginning teachers are often striving to regularly implement practices learned during their preservice teacher education. The two participants in this narrative inquiry are particularly focused on implementing inquiry-based teaching. "Managing inquiry-based learning environments has a host of challenges, illustrating that this kind of instruction is not easy" (Harris & Rooks, 2010, p. 238). "The Drive" is a composite story, representing the lived experiences of two beginning teachers implementing inquiry-based teaching and their feelings of self-efficacy (Wertz, Nosek, Mcniesh, & Marlow, 2011). When their expectations regarding inquiry-based teaching are not met, teachers may question their own capabilities and begin to consider leaving the field.Findings suggest it is important to build teacher self-efficacy while providing necessary knowledge to implement inquiry-based learning.