Developing Inquiry Skills in Teachers: Some Reflections on Improvement of Practice.

Abstract

The reflections of two ,pocial scientists regarding an inservice education program for elementary school teachers were,the basis of their approach to inservice programs: Teachers need to have .analytical and inquiry skills that will allow them'to read research reports. and listen to inservice presentations, digest the information, and then apply what seems useful to them in their particular situations. When an elementary school was about to undergo of a transition from a traditional, self-contained classroom structure to an open-concept school, where teachers worked in teams, a summer workshop was developed to teach needed analytical and'inquiry skills to teachers.1The development-of certain skills would benefit the teachers: (10 journal keeping; (2) ability to reflect on one's own performance; and (3) an ability to obserVe the acticns of others and gain understanding of those..actions from the perspective of the participapts.A 2-week workshop was gosigned and implemented through day-by-day schedules. While the participants at first had difficulty in accepting the concept that development of inquiry 'skills would be valuable in a team-teaching situation, the master plan of the workshop eventually becaie apparent to them. Fo1161-up studies in the fall, however, revealed that, because of the organizational structure of the school and lack of time, teachers had little opportunity to utilize all the skills they had learned. The inservice workshop was successful in changing some teachers' beliefs about teaching. However, it was not successful in that it did not deal with the problems faced by the teacher in implementing these changes, given. the constraints imposed by the ways schools are organized. (JD) , **4*****************************************************************i**, * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. -* , 14 ****************** *************************************************** 0