Inquiry in teacher education: experiences of lecturers and student teachers

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper presents findings from a research project that investigated the aspects of inquiry-based learning (IBL), specifically experiences of teacher inquiry, within initial teacher education (ITE) programmes. The participants in the project were four teacher educators and 127 student teachers with the teacher educators being the research team. The inspiration for the research was an interest in features of IBL in ITE. Firstly, opportunities for teacher inquiry, conceptualised by the team as ‘intrinsic inquiry’, where student teachers carried out inquiries as reflections on their practice. Secondly, student teachers experiencing, planning and reflecting on classroom inquiry, conceptualised as ‘modelled inquiry’. We hoped our research would be informative for colleagues in ITE, as we knew from experience in ITE that providing opportunities for inquiry meant reflection, and acting on reflection was more likely to occur. Findings revealed many ‘multiplicities of inquiry’ between intrinsic and modelled enquiry, which participants had a range of views of. This paper focuses primarily on the aspects of intrinsic inquiry in teacher education, which included teacher inquiry and many other types of aspects of inquiry as outlined. However, throughout the findings reported students refer to both intrinsic and modelled inquiry.