Source: Journal of Science Teacher Education, Volume 24, Issue 5, pp 879-905, August 2013.
The present research examined the influence of a professional development program based around commercially available inquiry science curricula on the teaching practices of 27 beginning elementary school teachers and their teacher mentors over a 2 year period.
Data were collected through inquiry elements and videotaped lessons.
Data indicated that education students assigned to inquiry-based classrooms during their methods course or student teaching year outperformed students without this experience.
There was also a significant positive effect of multi-year access to the kit-based program on mentor teaching practice.
Recent inclusion of a “writing in science” program in both preservice and inservice training has been used to address the lesson element that received lowest scores—evaluation of data and its use in scientific explanation.
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