KiMYA ÖĞRETMEN ADAYLARINDA SORGULAYICI-ARAŞTIRMA ODAKLI ÖĞRETİME İLİŞKİN ANLAYIŞ OLUŞTURMA

Inquiry, value of which has been emphasized by science educators for many years, has become one of the most important notions in the vision of new science curriculum in many countries, including Turkey, around the world. Inquiry refers to the activities of students in which they develop knowledge and understanding of scientific ideas, as well as an understanding of how scientists study the natural world. Given that teachers have the central role in success of reform efforts, it is possible to state that science teacher must have pedagogical knowledge and skills which are necessary to enact inquiry-based science teaching. However, research indicates that preservice and in-service teachers of science are not qualified enough for successful implementation of inquiry pedagogy in their future classrooms. The aim of the study is to develop an inquirybased professional development workshop for the pre-service and inservice teachers of chemistry, and to examine their understandings about inquiry-based teaching after the participation to the workshop. The sample of the study was 20 pre-service chemistry teachers. The workshop was composed of seven sections (Activities Based-on Inquiry, What is Inquiry?, Models and Strategies Supporting Inquiry, Scientific Process Skills in Inquiry, Asking Questions in Inquiry, Misconceptions About Administration of Inquiry, Experience and Opinion Sharing About Inquiry). The administration of the workshop lasted 10 weeks in 3-hour sections. In order to examine the participants’ understandings about inquiry-based teaching, interviews and written documents were utulized as qualitative data sources. The data were analyzed by using content analysis methodology. The findings of the quantitative analysis indicated that the understandings of participants about inquiry-based teaching focus on attainments of students and structure of the methodology. It seems that the professional development intervention provided for the participants understandings related to capability for enactment of inquiry-based teaching in their future classrooms