An Exploratory Study of Students’ Inquiry Competence and Science Teachers’ Inquiry Teaching Performance

[[abstract]]The purpose of this study is to investigate students’ inquiry competence and their perception of teachers’ inquiry teaching performance. Using purposive sampling, we selected Group A (5 classes, 259 students) whose science teachers had inquiry teaching experience, and Group B (five classes, 245 students)from the same schools as group A. All of them filled “Students’ Inquiry Competence in Relation to Teacher’s Inquiry Teaching Questionnaire” which consists: students’ inquiry competence(SIC), students’ understanding of inquiry(SUI), teacher’s inquiry teaching competence(TITC) and the teacher’s effect of developing students’ inquiry competence(TEDSIC)(Hsieh, Tuan, & Chin, 2010). The entire alpha was 0.953. The results revealed that students from group A scores significantly higher than group B in TITC, and TEDSIC scales (p < 0.05). In the A group males scores significantly higher than females in SIC scale(p < 0.05). There is no significant difference in each scale for gender in B group, males or females between group A and group B. The results support the construct validity of this questionnaire, that students can perceive the difference between science teachers’ inquiry teaching competence and how teachers’ teaching influence on their inquiry competence