ABSTRACT

This research explored Eswatini final year primary pre-service teachers’ (PSTs) inquiry-based-science teaching (IBST) competencies. In the first phase of the larger study, 34 pre-service teachers’ understanding of IBST was assessed. This paper reports on the second phase of the study where six of the PST volunteered to take part in after-questionnaire interviews to obtain deeper insights into their understanding of IBST. Their lesson plans, classroom observation recordings, and semi-structured lesson interviews were used to gather evidence pertaining to how they enact IBST in schools. Data were analysed using Furtak's conceptual framework of IBST. The findings reveal that in their enactment of the cognitive dimension, the PSTs focused mainly on the conceptual domain while in the guidance dimension, most of their lessons were teacher directed. In the main, their level of comprehension of the procedural and epistemic processes of the cognitive domain of IBST and their pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) seemed to shape the way they implemented their plans in the classroom. The results give some evidence of the usefulness of the adopted conceptual framework in investigating teachers’ understanding of IBST.

摘要

这项研究探索了埃斯瓦蒂尼最后一年的小学学前教师（PST）的基于查询的科学教学（IBST）的能力。在大型研究的第一阶段，评估了34名职前教师对IBST的理解。本文报告了研究的第二阶段，其中六个PST自愿参加问卷调查后的访谈，以深入了解他们对IBST的理解。他们的课程计划，课堂观察记录和半结构化的课程访谈被用来收集有关他们如何在学校制定IBST的证据。使用Furtak的IBST概念框架分析数据。研究结果表明，在制定认知维度时，PST主要集中在概念领域，而在指导维度中，大部分课程则是由教师指导的。总的来说，他们对IBST认知领域的程序和认识过程的理解程度以及他们的教学内容知识（PCK）似乎决定了他们在课堂上实施计划的方式。结果提供了一些证据，表明所采用的概念框架在调查教师对IBST的理解方面是有用的。