USING THE PRACTICES OF INQUIRY IN THE CLASSROOM: BELIEFS, DIFFICULTIES AND FORMATIVE NEEDS OF PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS

Inquiry-based science education has been recognized by several international standards, recommendations and research studies as the most effective approach to contextually learn science content and practices. The change agents for the shift from a traditional classroom to an inquiry-based one are the teachers, who, however, need to go through a challenging process of improvement of their competences and a revision of their roles, teaching practice, and beliefs in order to effectively teach science as inquiry. In order to gain an up-to-date insight into the actual situation of the implementation of inquiry-based science education in primary schools, we have constructed and pilot-tested a questionnaire aimed at revealing primary teachers’ conceptions and beliefs about science education and inquiry, their actual practice and their main difficulties. The questionnaire was constructed considering the literature and the most relevant international documents. The results suggest that teachers generally recognize the effectiveness of teaching science as inquiry and make use of some practical work in their classrooms, but at the same time there is little clarity on the definition of inquiry and on how to implement it. They also feel the need of quality professional development programs that can effectively support them in teaching science as inquiry.