Much of the recent literature on change recognizes that it is both an individual and an organizational phenomenon. Change affects every educator, administrator, and parent as well as the school or school system of which they are a part. This research also observes that change has a number of inherent features:. Change is a process that takes time and persistence. Early in a change, people often feel awkward, frustrated, and clumsy as they try to use new behaviors and coordinate new materials, activities, and relationships.

A significant change in teaching often takes several years to master. As individuals progress through a change process, their needs for support and assistance change.

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Change efforts are effective when the change to be made is clearly defined, assistance and opportunities to collaborate are available, and administrators and policies support the change. Organizations that are continuously improving have ongoing mechanisms for setting goals, taking actions, assessing the results of their actions, and making adjustments.

Change is complex because it requires people to communicate with one another about complex topics in organizations that are, for the most part, large and structured Loucks-Horsley et al.

Teaching through inquiry requires teachers to think and act in new ways, which takes the form of new skills, behaviors, instructional activities, assessment procedures, and so on. Research on teacher change, however, indicates that the process often works the other way around: Thus, changes in teaching often result in new attitudes and commitment to the new approach. In addition, how teachers think and feel about change appears to be developmental. Many studies of individuals who have changed their practice over time — both on their own initiative and when decisions to do so were made by others — have revealed that individuals go through stages in how they feel about the change Fullan, ; Hall and Hord, ; Huberman and Miles, Many educators find the progression of stages of concern a valuable lens for facilitating change in schools Lieberman and Miller, ; Joyce, Table outlines the stages of concern about the use of a teaching practice such as inquiry that calls for a significant change in behavior Hord et al.

By being aware of these stages in teachers and others involved in change, administrators and teacher. Typical Expressions of Concern About an Innovation. Adapted from Hord et al.

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Taking Charge of Change. It is not a coincidence that this bears some resemblance to the inquiry process itself. Changes implemented by individual teachers can succeed and endure only with simultaneous changes in the district, school, or department in which the teacher is working.


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Effective change thus requires that a school adopt new approaches to support individual teachers. The remainder of this chapter discusses a number of these strategies. As described in Chapter 5 , professional development comes in many forms Loucks-Horsley et al. If teachers do not have access to such opportunities, administrators can help teachers find them or can create them in the school or in cooperation with other schools.

Many of the rich variety of potential learning experiences for teachers will not occur in an organized, formal class. Every school has a measure of expertise and experience that can be tapped. Even if formal arrangements for assistance include outside help, administrators or teacher leaders can facilitate internal support mechanisms such as the study groups described in.

Administrative assistance and support. As teachers pass through the stages of concern described in Table , administrators need to provide them with professional development experiences appropriate to their progress in constructing a new view of teaching and creating the new behaviors required to practice it.

For example, at an early stage of concern, teachers who are beginning to practice new inquiry behaviors will want information about inquiry and its place in the curriculum. Administrators can provide them with reference materials and with access to other teachers, university professors, or scientists who can answer their questions. When the need for information is coupled with personal concerns at stage of concern number 4, for example , teachers often express worries about whether the new teaching strategies will be acceptable to the principal, other teachers, and parents.

These worries need to be listened to and addressed, understanding that they are a natural part of the change process. One way to address this concern is to encourage small groups. Small study groups not only provide information; they also provide the mutual support that teachers need as they progress through their concerns. As the new teaching practices begin, teachers will have many concerns about their effectiveness, the amount of work required, and their acceptance by others.

Learning and Teaching Scientific Inquiry Research and Applications by James Jadrich

Administrators need to assure teachers that they know and support what the teachers are doing. Other teachers also need to hear that administrators are behind the inquiry-based approach. Public expressions of support can reiterate the importance of inquiry in the context of many competing demands for time and attention. Availability of instructional mate rials, kits, and equipment. As personal concerns are resolved, many teachers have concerns about making things work stage of concern number 3. For example, is the schedule conducive for inquiry-based teaching?

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Are the periods or teaching blocks long enough to complete most activities in one day? Do instructional units or courses of study incorporate inquiry as the main teaching and learning strategy? Traditional textbooks and units are often not conducive to inquiry-based teaching. See Chapter 7 for ways to adapt traditional materials to support inquiry-based learning, should this be impossible. Does the school or district emphasize inquiry-oriented materials when approving textbooks and instructional materials?

Learning and Teaching Scientific Inquiry Research and Applications

Are the criteria for selection based on standards national or state that have a strong inquiry component? Nothing interferes with inquiry-based teaching more than lacking an adequate supply of instructional materials. Administrators need to ensure that teachers have appropriate kits, equipment, and supplies, and that consumable supplies are replaced regularly. Is the storage space adequate and secure? Experienced teachers can help find the answers to some of these questions, as can administrators who pay attention to the problems teachers are having.

Only by working through management questions can a teacher construct an image and an understanding of how inquiry-based teaching will benefit his or her students stage of concern number five. Teachers at this stage will ask hard questions about the effectiveness of their teaching. They often will seek answers from the research and from careful student assessments to assure themselves that they and the approach they are using are effective. Study groups can seek help from local university researchers or district level science education specialists in addressing these concerns.

Small action research projects Miller and Pine, ; Holly, ; Calhoun, and examination of student work Loucks-Horsley et al. Interpreting inquiry-based teach ing and learning for parents and other members of the public. Many administrators have learned the hard way that it is much better to be proactive with the community than reactive. Administrators cannot wait until the letters and phone calls start coming in from parents and other members of the public. They need to introduce and explain inquiry to parents whose students are involved.

Administrators need to know and share the advantages of teaching and learning this way and, at the same time, be open about the pitfalls or adjustments that some students will have to make to succeed. Teachers also can be asked to describe what they will do to help. Building support with the public cannot stop with parents. Local businesses, government agencies and laboratories, museums, professional societies, and so on will be interested in supporting standards-based reform efforts and often can provide resources of materials, kits, scientists as.

The local media may be interested in a story that features a local innovation consistent with national improvement efforts. By stressing the acquisition of fundamental science knowledge through inquiry, administrators can avoid creating the image that inquiry is about exploring any interesting idea or simply the latest fad on the educational scene.

Student assessment procedures aligned with the outcomes of inquiry. Students and parents quickly judge what is valued by the tests and grading system the teachers and the schools use, and they adjust their behavior accordingly. If the inquiry activities and investigations are simply interludes between memorizing material from the text and other sources, the motivation to acquire inquiry-based abilities will be limited.

To avoid these pitfalls, administrators can encourage teachers to communicate clearly to students and parents what they expect students in their classes to know and be able to do and how they will assess and grade them. Do teachers include questions on their quizzes in the grades and courses where this is appropriate and use hands-on assessment tasks to measure inquiry abilities?

Assessments of inquiry are a very useful topic for teacher study groups and for action research projects. If tests are mandated by the district or state, what is their impact on teachers? If the tests do not measure inquiry, how can the requirement or the nature of the tests be modified? Changing the policies involved is a tall order but well worth the effort. Many administrators and teachers are ready and willing to join in this task. Until such changes can be made, administrators need to be open about the fact that the tests only measure a portion of the science objectives or standards.


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And students who achieve a deep understanding of science content through inquiry usually do well on conventional tests Bransford et al. Promoting inquiry and problem solving in other subject areas. Inquiry is not exclusive to science or science teaching. In other words, it has helped us makes our classes a place where students actually DO science.


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It's also very aligned with "modeling curriculum" https: Jul 29, Esaad added it. Mary rated it liked it Jan 05, K rated it liked it Nov 28, Theresa Kueny-Theis rated it it was amazing Feb 02, Stephanie Medina marked it as to-read Oct 16, Glen Ritschel marked it as to-read Jul 22, Tara Perry marked it as to-read Aug 01, Diana De Vera marked it as to-read Mar 05, There are no discussion topics on this book yet.

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