Workshop with Dr. Whitehead
1. What do I want to improve
I would like to improve my teaching practice in the teaching method course to develop pre-service science teachers’ ability to design an inquiry-based lesson plan
2. Why do I feel that something I would like to improve is necessary (narrative)
Because I think scientific knowledge came from the work of scientists through the inquiry process, so if the pre-service science teachers can design an inquiry-based lesson plan to teach their students, the students will learn science in a meaningful way and feel happy during the science class.
While I was teaching the teaching method course, my students usually tell me that they understood the concept of inquiry learning. They could explain the characteristic of inquiry learning such as the steps in the 5E learning cycle, but when I asked them to write an inquiry-based lesson plan they could not design the activities that follow the concept of inquiry learning. Their lesson plans tend to be emphasizing in lecture base style.
The experience when I studied teaching method course during my graduate diploma, my teacher usually demonstrate each teaching technique and provide opportunities for the students to do the activities by themselves ,and then follow by group discussion to summarize the concept of each teaching technique. This technique make me understand about how to design the learning activities based on an inquiry-based approach, so I would like to apply her technique to teach the students in my course.
3. What could I do that might improve what I am doing
- Design the inquiry-based activities and ask students to do the activities during the class time
- Provide opportunity for pre-service science teachers to discuss what they learn from the activities in the class
- Assign pre-service science teachers to design their own inquiry-based lesson plan as their homework and provide chance for pre-service science teachers to critique their lesson plan whether the lesson plan is consistence with the inquiry-based or not, or what aspects he/she should improve
4. What data will I collect to answer my question/to judge my educational influence in my professional context
My teaching practice from my journal, pre-service science teachers’ journal, VDO recording
Pre-service science teachers’ practice from my journal, and pre-service science teachers’ journal
Pre-service science teachers’ lesson plan
