Developing Chemistry Teacher’s Ability to Design Inquiry-based Lab through Scaffolding type of Teacher Training Program

Abstract

This study aims to develop chemistry teacher’s ability in designing inquiry-based lab. Preliminary study showed that the chemistry teacher ability to design inquiry-based lab need to be developed. Teacher’s training program with scaffolding strategy was selected to improve that ability. Twenty four chemistry teachers, who were involved in the Chemistry Teacher Council(CTC, also called MGMP Kimia) in Sumedang, and 60 students of class XI from two different schools were participated in this study. The instruments used were the test of designing inquiry-based lab, rubric to evaluate student worksheet (LKS) and rating scale questionnaire. The results showed that the ability to design inquiry-based lab increased with N-gain average was 0.8 or at the high category. The ability to assess the phenomenon of contextual and making steering questions had a highest mean N-gain is 0.9 at high category. Teachersgave positive responses about the training program generally, indicated by percentage of teacher’s response in strong and very strong criteria. Although teacher training with scaffolding strategy was newly applied in CTC, it helped developing teacher’s ability in designing inquiry-based lab and gave confidence to teachers to implement in their classroom.