Public Secondary School Teachers’ Utility of Inquiry - Based Approach in Teaching Science

Twenty first century teaching requires learning activities that is more engaging and interesting where students are encourage to formulate questions and relate these questions to everyday life. Inquiry –based teaching has the capability of addressing this thrust since it allows students to engage in investigations to satisfy curiosities - curiosities that are being fulfilled when individuals have constructed mental frameworks that adequately explain their experiences. In this study, the researcher investigated the extent of utility of inquiry-based teaching among science teachers in public secondary schools. The content of the instrument anchored on the PRIMAS project was carefully selected in order to fit in the actual teaching context. The data from the 18 public secondary schools in Biliran, Philippines was analyzed. Results showed that inquiry- based science teaching are “oftentimes” employed by the teachers. This suggests that teachers still need all the opportunities to learn how to use inquiry-based in teaching science. Technical assistance, relevant trainings and workshops in inquiry-based teaching are greatly encouraged