ESTONIAN TEACHERS’ READINESS TO PROMOTE INQUIRY SKILLS AMONG STUDENTS

Researchers in developed countries have reported that the students´ skills related to inquiry are poor and the teachers do not adequately teach inquiry skills without the involvement of special interventions. Little is known about inquiry teaching and science teachers´ attitudes in post socialist countries, for example the Baltic republics. This study aimed to explore the current situation in Estonian science classes and interpret teachers´ development toward inquiry based experimental teaching during an 8-month intervention. The results from this study showed that characteristics exhibited by teachers as a result of their development can be described in 3 categories with only one category showing a readiness to promote inquiry skills and that the changes in students' acquisition of process skills were dependent on teachers' development.