Laurie Borger

Inquiry-based teaching and learning is a replication of authentic scientific investigation and a means of channeling natural human curiosity towards specified learning outcomes. Though this approach has long been touted as an effective pedagogy, its application by elementary classroom teachers has been problematic even though much time and money has been spent on professional development in this area. If students are to reach science proficiency, elementary science instruction must engage students in inquiry and their inquiry must reflect the knowledge building practices of the scientific community recently delineated in the National Research Council’s report, Taking Science to School: Learning and Teaching Science in Grades K-8, (NRC, 2007). Two case studies were used as the research strategy to investigate effective professional learning experiences for teachers and the concomitant development of scientific proficiency in children. Data collected from both cases were examined usin...

Though inquiry-based teaching has long been touted as an effective pedagogy, its application by elementary classroom teachers has been problematic. Two case studies were used to investigate effective professional learning experiences for teachers and the concomitant development of scientific proficiency in children. Both case studies used a newly developed instrument, the Classroom Observation Inventory, to collect data regarding teachers‟ use of the 5E model of inquiry-based teaching. The data indicates that teachers continually cycle through the stages of engage/elicit, explore, and explain with few teachers using the stages of expand/elaborate or evaluate. It is the recommendation of this study that the Classroom Observation Inventory and a newly developed 5E unit outline be used in conjunction with a variety of professional development scenarios as a collaborative data collection tool and discussion facilitator to support teachers in making informed instructional decisions that ...

The current study was constructed based on the recommendations of a previous study (McHenry & Borger, 2013). Though inquiry-based teaching has long been touted as an effective pedagogy, its application by middle school science teachers has been problematic. Using tools developed from the previous study in conjunction with professional development grounded in instructional coaching, the program attempted to support middle school teachers in making informed instructional decisions that enhance classroom practices to support students in reaching full science proficiency. Over the two and one-half year span of the program, researchers found that middle school teachers were able to embrace major facets of the 5E model of inquiry. While their view of the nature of science expanded slightly, they still struggle with ideas related to argumentation and theory building. The impediments that influenced the success and continuation of the program were three-fold. There was a lack of administrat...