Science Teachers' Practical Knowledge of Inquiry-Based Learning

Abstract

Science teachers' practical knowledge of inquiry-based learning influence their beliefs about science teaching and learning. The Indonesian Curriculum released in 2013 has required teachers to teach science via inquiry-based approaches. In fact, some previous studies have found that teachers have difficulties in practically implementing the requirements suggested by the curriculum. It is believed that teachers’ practical knowledge may influence their real teaching practices. This research aimed to analyze how teachers employed their practical knowledge in teaching inquiry-based science by selecting an appropriate type of inquiry in science topics. 105 science teachers purposefully drawn from the regular meeting of Science Teachers Association of Surakarta City in February 2017voluntarily participated in the survey. A nine-item questionnaire originally developed by W.W. Cobern et al (2104) was administered to measure the most appropriate type of inquiry in various science topics. The teachers' options represent their practical knowledge of inquiry-based learning. It is expected that teachers will choose the best appropriate type of inquiry focusing on student's autonomy, i.e an open inquiry. The results showed that the teachers differently interpreted the inquiry-based learning. Teachers mostly used guided-inquiry (32.8%) and open-inquiry (32.08%) to teach the science topics in the questionnaire. It was elicited that 12.17% of them selected didactic direct inquiry, whilst 22.65% of them chose active direct one. It is recommended that future studies should handle the results of the current study to appropriately formulate in-service curriculum and education for science teachers.