Elementary School Teachers' Teaching Experience of Scientific Inquiry

과학 탐구에 대한 초등 교사들의 지도 경험

The purposes of this study were as follows; to investigate elementary school teachers' understanding of scientific inquiry, experiences in learning/teaching, their educational experience of scientific inquiry, and to study the difficulties they experience in teaching scientific inquiry methods to elementary students and their suggestions for future inquiry materials. For the purposes of this study, 157 elementary school teachers participated in a survey and 10 teachers were interviewed in-depth in relation to their ideas and experiences of scientific inquiry. The results show that most elementary school teachers had a lack of understanding of scientific inquiry skills, and lacked educational experiences of inquiry methods in general. They generally perceived the 7th science text-books as being inappropriate and inadequate for teaching students scientific inquiry processes. The educational implications are discussed to help practitioners implement scientific inquiries successfully through the various types of teaching materials and professional developments.