This paper reports a pretest-posttest study about the impact of a teacher professional development (TPD) programme on primary school teachers' knowledge of and attitude towards inquiry-based learning. A pedagogical framework of inquiry phases and domains of scientific knowledge combined with hard and soft scaffolds formed the basis for the TPD…

This study investigated science classroom discourse in terms of the types of teacher discursive moves (TDMs) and the relationships between the types of TDMs and student-led cognitive contributions in different science concepts by considering the classroom context. An experienced seventh-grade science teacher and her 19 students were engaged in…

We investigate in-service teachers' scientific engagement in a blended online science inquiry course. We analyze a shift from teachers following instructions to doing science themselves, and we characterize it at two levels: first, in how teachers engaged in individual sense-making; and second, in how they oriented to the online community as a…

This paper explores the effect teachers' participation in a targeted inquiry-based/nature of science (NoS) continuing professional development programme had on Irish primary children's experiences of scientific inquiry and developing conceptions of NoS. Data were gathered from 459 children from 10 Dublin schools. The findings revealed that their…

This study identified the accumulated distributions of the enacted discursive moves during classroom inquiry to demonstrate how a science teacher reacted to the existence of two mutually exclusive social languages: everyday social languages of the students vs. social languages of school science. The participants were a science teacher and 26…

In recent years, calls for the adoption of inquiry-based pedagogies in the science classroom have formed a part of the recommendations for large-scale high school science reforms. However, these pedagogies have been problematic to implement at scale. This research explores the perceptions of 34 positively inclined early-adopter teachers in…

In this paper, we explore middle school science teachers' learning of inquiry-based instructional strategies through reflection on practice teaching sessions during a summer enrichment program with middle level students. The reflection sessions were part of a larger year-long inquiry professional development program in which teachers learned…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the various roles that early elementary teachers adopt when questioning, to scaffold dialogic interaction and students' cognitive responses for argumentative practices over time. Teacher questioning is a pivotal contributing factor that shapes the role teachers play in promoting dialogic interaction in…

Inquiry- and context-based teaching strategies have been proven to stimulate and motivate students' interests in learning science. In this study, 12 teachers reflected on these strategies after using them in primary schools. The teachers participated in a continuous professional development (CPD) programme. During the programme, they were also…

In this paper, we present the results from a study of the impact on students involved in a large-scale inquiry-based astronomical high school education intervention in Australia. Students in this intervention were led through an educational design allowing them to undertake an investigative approach to understanding the lifecycle of stars more…

With advancements made in mobile technology, increasing emphasis has been paid to how to leverage the affordances of mobile technology to improve science learning and instruction. This paper reports on a science curriculum supported by an inquiry-based framework and mobile technologies. It was developed by teachers and researchers in a multiyear…

This study investigates the relationship, if any, between teacher participation in a targeted professional development programme and changes in participants' instructional practice and their pupils' attitudes to learning primary science. The programme took place over a 2-year period in 15 small rural schools in the West of Ireland. Data sources…

This study stemmed from concerns among researchers that reform efforts grounded in promoting inquiry as the basis for teaching science have not achieved the desired changes in American science classrooms. Many science teachers assume that they are employing inquiry-based strategies when they use cookbook investigations with highly structured…

The paper describes characteristics and analyses difficulties of environmental sciences teachers in mentoring their students in an extended inquiry project, which is a mandatory requirement of the environmental sciences matriculation in Israel. The teachers participated in a professional development program that provided both content knowledge and…