Relationship between Beliefs of Teachers about and Their Use of Explicit Instruction When Fostering Students’ Scientific Inquiry Competencies
An efficient approach to fostering students’ scientific inquiry (SI) competencies (e.g., planning investigations) is to combine student engagement in inquiry activities with explicit instruction that addresses corresponding concepts (e.g., the control-of-variables strategy). Despite its effectivenes...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-08-01
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| Series: | Education Sciences |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/12/9/593 |
| _version_ | 1797489234416762880 |
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| author | Verena Petermann Andreas Vorholzer |
| author_facet | Verena Petermann Andreas Vorholzer |
| author_sort | Verena Petermann |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | An efficient approach to fostering students’ scientific inquiry (SI) competencies (e.g., planning investigations) is to combine student engagement in inquiry activities with explicit instruction that addresses corresponding concepts (e.g., the control-of-variables strategy). Despite its effectiveness, explicit instruction on SI-related concepts seems to be rarely employed in science classrooms. As a vital component of professional competence, teachers’ beliefs are a potential cause for the rare use of explicit instruction. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between teachers’ beliefs about the usefulness of explicit instruction as well as their own abilities and teacher performance. In a mixed method approach, the beliefs of <i>N</i> = 16 teachers were captured with a questionnaire, while their teaching practice was approximated through a combination of a lesson planning task and a semi-structured interview. Analyses of response patterns, a qualitative content analysis of the planned lessons, and correlation analyses were used to investigate the relationship between beliefs and performance. The findings suggest that beliefs about the usefulness of explicit instruction for fostering SI competencies may be a necessary but not a sufficient condition for its implementation. Furthermore, the results suggest the importance of assessing and investigating teachers’ beliefs on a goal-specific level. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T00:13:36Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-fb89c492663e4baea007015d2f8fa99e |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2227-7102 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T00:13:36Z |
| publishDate | 2022-08-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Education Sciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-fb89c492663e4baea007015d2f8fa99e2023-11-23T15:55:36ZengMDPI AGEducation Sciences2227-71022022-08-0112959310.3390/educsci12090593Relationship between Beliefs of Teachers about and Their Use of Explicit Instruction When Fostering Students’ Scientific Inquiry CompetenciesVerena Petermann0Andreas Vorholzer1Institute of Physics Education, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Karl-Gloeckner-Str. 21C, 35394 Giessen, GermanySchool of Social Sciences and Technology, Technical University of Munich, Arcisstr. 21, 80333 Munich, GermanyAn efficient approach to fostering students’ scientific inquiry (SI) competencies (e.g., planning investigations) is to combine student engagement in inquiry activities with explicit instruction that addresses corresponding concepts (e.g., the control-of-variables strategy). Despite its effectiveness, explicit instruction on SI-related concepts seems to be rarely employed in science classrooms. As a vital component of professional competence, teachers’ beliefs are a potential cause for the rare use of explicit instruction. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between teachers’ beliefs about the usefulness of explicit instruction as well as their own abilities and teacher performance. In a mixed method approach, the beliefs of <i>N</i> = 16 teachers were captured with a questionnaire, while their teaching practice was approximated through a combination of a lesson planning task and a semi-structured interview. Analyses of response patterns, a qualitative content analysis of the planned lessons, and correlation analyses were used to investigate the relationship between beliefs and performance. The findings suggest that beliefs about the usefulness of explicit instruction for fostering SI competencies may be a necessary but not a sufficient condition for its implementation. Furthermore, the results suggest the importance of assessing and investigating teachers’ beliefs on a goal-specific level.https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/12/9/593teachers’ beliefsteacher performanceteaching practiceprofessional competenceexplicit instructionlesson planning |
| spellingShingle | Verena Petermann Andreas Vorholzer Relationship between Beliefs of Teachers about and Their Use of Explicit Instruction When Fostering Students’ Scientific Inquiry Competencies Education Sciences teachers’ beliefs teacher performance teaching practice professional competence explicit instruction lesson planning |
| title | Relationship between Beliefs of Teachers about and Their Use of Explicit Instruction When Fostering Students’ Scientific Inquiry Competencies |
| title_full | Relationship between Beliefs of Teachers about and Their Use of Explicit Instruction When Fostering Students’ Scientific Inquiry Competencies |
| title_fullStr | Relationship between Beliefs of Teachers about and Their Use of Explicit Instruction When Fostering Students’ Scientific Inquiry Competencies |
| title_full_unstemmed | Relationship between Beliefs of Teachers about and Their Use of Explicit Instruction When Fostering Students’ Scientific Inquiry Competencies |
| title_short | Relationship between Beliefs of Teachers about and Their Use of Explicit Instruction When Fostering Students’ Scientific Inquiry Competencies |
| title_sort | relationship between beliefs of teachers about and their use of explicit instruction when fostering students scientific inquiry competencies |
| topic | teachers’ beliefs teacher performance teaching practice professional competence explicit instruction lesson planning |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/12/9/593 |
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