Confronting Doubts About the Intelligibility, Plausibility, and Fruitfulness of Inquiry-based Instruction

Authors

Jerrid Kruse, Iowa Academy of ScienceFollow
Michael P. Clough, Iowa Academy of ScienceFollow

Document Type

Editorial

Abstract

Our two prior ISTJ editorials in the Iowa Science Teacher Journal (Clough & Kruse, 2010a & 2010b) have applied a conceptual change framework (Posner, Strike, Hewson & Gertzog, 1983; Pintrich et al., 1993; Abd-El-Khalick & Akerson, 2004; Clough, 2006a) to understand the difficulties students have in abandoning their intuitive ideas about the natural world and, for the same reasons, the difficulties teachers have in jettisoning their intuitive and learning. Our last editorial noted that in both cases, dissatisfaction with prior ways of thinking must be achieved before alternative ways of thinking will be seriously sought and considered. To initiate a sense of dissatisfaction with intuitive common teaching practices (i.e. lectures, textbook readings and questions, worksheets, and highly directive activities), we noted the overwhelming evidence that such practices have not promoted conceptual understanding of science concepts or other equally important goals for science education. We also emphasized how easily these kinds of teaching practices can be emulated by machines, a point we hope raises not only questions, but also indignity, regarding the pervasive nature of those teaching practices.

Publication Date

Fall 2010

Journal Title

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

Volume

37

Issue

3

First Page

2

Last Page

5

Copyright

© Copyright 2010 by the Iowa Academy of Science

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

Recommended Citation

Kruse, Jerrid and Clough, Michael P. (2010) "Confronting Doubts About the Intelligibility, Plausibility, and Fruitfulness of Inquiry-based Instruction," Iowa Science Teachers Journal: Vol. 37: No. 3, Article 2.
Available at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/istj/vol37/iss3/2