UNIVERSITY OF BUCHAREST
FACULTY OF PHYSICS

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2024-11-22 1:35
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Conference: Bucharest University Faculty of Physics 2015 Meeting


Section: Physics Education


Title:
Attitudes, values and beliefs of early years science teachers on inquiry instruction – a comparative study for Finland and Romania


Authors:
Sari Havu-NUUTINEN(1), Adelina SPOREA(2), Dan SPOREA (2)


Affiliation:
1)University of Eastern Finland, Philosophical faculty, Joensuu, Finland

2)National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Center for Science Education and Training, Magurele, Romania



E-mail
adelina.sporea@inflpr.ro


Keywords:
comparative education, inquiry-based science education, teachers survey


Abstract:
Inquiry based approaches in science teaching have been extensively advocated over the last 20 years. New national curriculum guidelines and European projects financially supported the inquiry-based approach in science teaching and learning. However, these attempts are not found in school practice. Teachers do not see the inquiry approach usable, because they lack time to implement it in the classroom, or because they feel that subject knowledge taught is less efficient by inquiry instruction.Inquiry approaches includes both conceptual and procedural learning provisions for a logical framework that enables both running investigations and understanding science innovations. Scientific inquiry can be seen as the cycle of 5Es: engagement, exploration, explanation, elaboration and evaluation. Interest towards science teaching in early years has recently increased at European level and for this reason it is important to adequately train teachers working with young children. However, limited researches have been conducted addressing information about teachers’ perception of inquiry methods, their attitudes and limitations as it concerns early years science education. This study is part of the European Union funded Creative Little Scientist project (http://www.creative-little-scientists.eu) in which early years teachers’ conceptions on inquiry were surveyed, with a focus on creativity development. The participants to this study were 311 pre-school or primary school teachers from Romania and Finland. We performed, for the first time, a comparative study on Finnish and Romanian teachers’ attitudes and values about the inquiry instruction and on their perception about teachers’ education for inquiry practice.


References:

http://www.creative-little-scientists.eu

Acknowledgement:
The data collection was done in the frame of the FP7 EU funded project “Creative Little Scientists” (grant agreement no. 289081 and UEFISC contract UE176). For the preparation of this paper the Romanian authors acknowledge the financial support of UEFISC under the contract 223/2012, “Inquiry-based Education in Science and Technology (i-BEST).