Norwegian student teachers' understanding of inquiry-based science education

The Norwegian curriculum for natural science specifies that pupils must experience science as inquiry-based (Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training, 2019). However, previous research has shown that teachers have different understandings of what it means to inquire (Ireland et al., 2012), and what teachers do in practice, and how they carry out inquiry-based teaching, depends on how they understand inquiry-based science education (IBSE) (Haugan et al., 2017). Therefore, student teachers must develop awareness and knowledge of what characterizes IBSE and gain experience with this teaching method through their professional education. Through this study, I explore the student teachers’ descriptions of IBSE after an introductory course in science education, where IBSE is one of the didactic themes. The data material consists of 52 written responses to open-ended questionary collected from 2nd year student teachers at the end of the semester. The data was analyzed using thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006). The analysis generated three inductive themes: the role of the teacher, the role of the pupils and learning outcomes. Overall, their descriptions were aimed at the procedural perspectives of IBSE, where they described how inquiry can be taught with pupils, both within specific activities and with use of different didactic approaches. The roles of teacher were highlighted as a guide and motivator. The pupils’ role was characterized as active pupils, where the pupils needed to be engaged in questions and carrying out data collection. However, there was a lack of focus on the knowledge building and consolidation phase as a learning outcome of inquiry-based activities. Nevertheless, the student teachers expressed that IBSE could provide deeper learning, but they did not describe how this can be facilitated thought inquiry. Since research indicates that the implementation of IBSE in schools is influenced by how teachers perceive inquiry (Haugan et al., 2017), then teacher education must ensure that candidates have had sufficient opportunities to learn about and gain experience with this method. Based on the results, I give recommendations for how science teacher education can implement IBSE in their professional practice. References: Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 77-101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa Haugan, K., Korssjøen, S. G., & Skarpnes, K. (2017). Åtte naturfaglæreres forståelse av og erfaringer med utforskende arbeidsmåter og Forskerspiren ni år etter innføring av den norske nasjonale læreplanen Kunnskapsløftet (LK-06). Nordina: Nordic Studies in Science Education, 13(1), 66-80. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.5617/nordina.3452 Ireland, J. E., Watters, J. J., Brownlee, J., & Lupton, M. (2012). Elementary Teacher's Conceptions of Inquiry Teaching: Messages for Teacher Development. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 23(2), 159-175. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/s10972-011-9251-2 Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training. (2019). Curriculum for Natural science (NAT01‑04). https://www.udir.no/lk20/nat01-04?lang=eng