Physics Teachers' Implementation of Competence-Based Curriculum through the use of Inquiry-Based Teaching and Learning: A Case of Lower Secondary Schools in Gakenke District

Abstract

This study investigates how physics teachers of lower secondary schools practice inquiry-based teaching and learning (IBTL) in their physics teaching. The study used qualitative techniques such as open-ended questionnaires, interviews, and observation to collect data. The study participants were three senior-one physics teachers purposefully selected from three lower secondary schools of Gakenke District located in the Northern Province of Rwanda. Collected data were analyzed using content analysis. The study's findings revealed that study participants know about and how IBTL should be implemented. However, they were limited only on traditional methods of teaching and did not tackle five practices of inquiry-based teaching and learning in their physics teaching, which include engaging students in scientifically oriented questions, allowing students to give priority to evidence, allowing students to give explanations from evidence, and to communicate and justify their explanations and evaluating explanations from evidence. Therefore, teachers were found not effectively implementing the current competence-based curriculum (CBC) in Rwanda. Teachers are recommended to ask questions that require students to compare and contrast for practicing inquiry practice of evaluating explanations from evidence and to allow students to use different sources of information rather than using physics books only.