Impediments to Inquiry-based Instruction
The purpose of this project is to help teacher candidates understand
those factors arrayed against teaching via inquiry, and to effectively confront
and
resolve
the surrounding issues.
Costensen and Lawson (1986) conducted interviews with
in-service traditional biology teachers who were reticent to use inquiry-based
instruction in the own classrooms. Costenson and Lawson identified ten major
areas of concern as noted below.
Assignment: You and your classmates are all part of the
"ISAAPT Ad Hoc Committee on Inquiry-Based Instruction." Your Committee has
been charged with the
task
of providing a report (including a conference presentation and a written rationale)
in favor of inquiry-based instruction
that addresses the concerns enumerated below. It is your duty to cooperatively find
solutions to each of the following problems presented by those who stand opposed
to implementing inquiry instruction. You will begin by carefully weighing each teacher argument against the use of inquiry in the classroom, and come up with possible
solutions for each. You will then prepare a presentation and write a parallel
report that explains how each of the following concerns can be confronted and
resolved:
- time and energy – It is difficult and time consuming to produce
high quality inquiry lessons; it would be difficult to sustain the high level
of energy required to use active learning.
- too slow – Inquiry takes
more time than teaching by telling; the school curriculum requires
coverage of broader spectrum of content than
would be possible
with inquiry.
- reading too difficult – Students have difficulty translating
textbook knowledge into active inquiry.
- risk too high – The school
administration would not support inquiry practice due to a lack of
sufficient content coverage; the teacher might
be perceived
as not doing his or her job.
- tracking – Classrooms filled with lower-performing
students would not contain the right type of population needed to conduct
inquiry effectively.
- student immaturity – Students are too immature
and would waste time in unstructured settings; they would not benefit
from inquiry-oriented
teaching.
- teaching habits – Established expository teaching habit
are hard change after long periods of use; teacher might not have knowledge
and
skills required
for inquiry teaching.
- sequential text – The textbook constitutes the
curriculum; chapters cannot be skipped because too much important material
is included in each.
- discomfort – It is uncomfortable not to be in
control of the lesson, and being uncertain of the outcomes that might
result from inquiry-oriented
teaching is disturbing.
- too expensive – Inquiry requires active engagement,
and many classrooms are not equipped with sufficient teaching materials
suitable for active learning.
- Added to this list today could be high-stakes
testing – Inquiry teaches those skills that are not addressed
in such tests as the Prairie State Assessment Examination administered
to every high school student in Illinois under the No Child Left Behind initiative.
- Also to be added to this list is the question of resistance to inquiry-oriented science instruction by students, parents, peer teachers, and the school administration. See Minimizing resistance to inquiry-oriented science instruction: The importance of climate setting for details.
Your group, or a representative of your group, will give a 30-minute, PowerPoint-mediated presentation
to the "assembled body of the ISAAPT membership" to share your findings. The
written report must also be delivered to the "Executive Council" at this time.
References:
Costenson, K. & Lawson, A.E. (1986). Why isn’t inquiry used in more
classrooms? American Biology Teacher, 48(3), 150-158.
Wenning, C. (2005). Minimizing resistance to inquiry-oriented science instruction: The importance of climate setting. J. Phys. Tchr. Educ. Online, 3(2), 10-15.