An investigation of Chinese senior secondary physics teachers’ perceptions and implementation of inquiry-based teaching in China

Abstract

Recent reform to the Chinese national secondary science curricula has made inquiry a compulsory component of teaching objectives. It encourages science teachers to provide their students with more inquiry experience. However, many Chinese science teachers are finding it very challenging to adopt inquiry-based teaching (IBT) in their classrooms (B. Zhang, et al., 2003). The traditional teaching approaches still dominate in Chinese secondary classrooms (Salili, Zhou, & Hoosain, 2003). In addition, many teachers can not conduct IBT effectively (Y. Zhao, 2011; Qian, 2012). These issues are mirrored in many other education systems in the world where IBT is mandated. Evidence suggests that teachers all over the world struggle to implement inquiry-based changes to their teaching practices (R. Anderson, 2002; Campbell, Oh, Shin & Zhang, 2010). With an aim of addressing the barriers to the effective enactment of IBT in science classrooms, this study contributes to our understanding of the enactment of IBT by investigating Chinese senior secondary physics teachers’ perceptions and implementation of IBT. A mixed-methods approach has been employed to explore teachers’ beliefs about science teaching and learning, perceptions of IBT, and their inquiry practices. Using teacher surveys, in-depth semi-structured interviews and case studies, this study provides an insider’s view to Chinese physics teachers’ perceptions and enactment of IBT in their unique teaching contexts. This study has found that Chinese secondary physics teachers’ beliefs about the nature of science, teaching, and learning, were closely aligned (or nested) but sometimes conflicting. These beliefs interacted together to exert complex influences on teachers’ instructional decisions regarding the use of IBT, which in turn affect subsequent inquiry practices. The decision-making process included a process of interpretation in which teachers matched their understanding of inquiry with their beliefs. Teachers’ prior experience played vital roles in developing teachers’ beliefs, their understanding of inquiry, and their pedagogical knowledge and skills for IBT. This study also found that Chinese secondary physics teachers developed diverse inquiry practices, which shared some common pedagogical characteristics. There is a discrepancy, however, between teachers’ intended inquiry practice (instructional decisions) and actual inquiry practice in their classrooms. The teaching context, teachers’ perceptions of inquiry, and their pedagogical knowledge and skills for IBT affected the way in which their instructional decisions were put into effective inquiry practices. This study also drew attention to the powerful influences of the sociocultural context in China on teachers’ instructional decisions and their inquiry practices. Among these factors, the test-oriented student assessment system and limited teaching time were found to be particularly influential on teachers’ implementation of IBT. Other influential contextual factors included: the nature of students, classroom culture, school environment, collegial influences, and practical factors such as class size and resources. These major findings provide an overall picture of how Chinese physics teachers perceived and implemented IBT in the teaching context in China. It is suggested that it is possible and practical for Chinese physics secondary teachers to implement IBT. However, their inquiry-based instruction was often constrained by their beliefs and their teaching contexts, and distorted by their misconceptions and lack of pedagogical knowledge about inquiry. These issues point to three compelling challenges that Chinese physics teachers are encountering for their use of IBT, including challenges due to changing beliefs, pedagogy challenges, and cultural challenges. These challenges need to be appropriately addressed in order to improve teachers’ success in implementing IBT. The study contributes to knowledge in international science education by offering deeper and more detailed insights into Chinese senior secondary physics teachers’ perceptions and implementation of IBT. Particularly, it adds to the existing body of research on classroom enactment of inquiry-based teaching by providing five contrasting cases, describing how teachers’ beliefs, perceptions of inquiry, and inquiry practices interacted in their teaching contexts. The study also provides valuable information that can help researchers, teacher educators, and curriculum designers support teachers’ implementation of IBT.