Inquiry in the Classroom

Inquiry is an essential component to improving the science curriculum in the K-12 classrooms (Gengarelly & Abrams, 2009). While inquiry has proven itself to enhance a student\u27s learning and reasoning abilities; incorporating can be difficult(Schmidt, 2011). Reasons for the difficulty citied by teachers are time constraints, classroom management problems and demands for more equipment (Mumba, Mejia, Chabalengula & Mbewe, 2010). Research has also found teachers have confusion about what inquiry means (Mumba, Mejia, Chabalengula & Mbewe, 2010). Through a series of vignettes, this paper will look at multiple responses from High School Science teachers about incorporating inquiry into their classrooms . The vignettes will pose different scenarios that will check for teachers understanding of inquiry. Their responses will be compared to the above concerns about incorporating inquiry into their classroom to determine where the difficulty for the teachers truly lies. References: Mumba, F., Mejia, W. F., Chabalengula, V., & Mbewe, S. (2010). RESIDENT SCIENTISTS\u27 INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICE AND THEIR PERCEIVED BENEFITS AND DIFFICULTIES OF INQUIRY IN SCHOOLS. Journal of Baltic Science Education, 9(3), 187-195. Schmidt, A. (2011). Creativity in Science: Tensions between Perception and Practice, Creative Education, 2(5), 435-445 Gengarelly, L., & Abrams, E. (2009). Closing the Gap: Inquiry in Research and the Secondary Science Classroom. Journal of Science Education & Technology, 18(1), 74-8