The Change in Beginning Science Teachers' Inquiry-Oriented Teaching Practice through Mentoring Program

Abstract

Abstract:The purpose of this study was to investigate the change in beginning science teachers' inquiry-orientedteaching practice through mentoring program. Participants in this study are three mentor teachers and three beginningteachers. The three beginning teachers are middle school science teachers who have less than four years teachingexperience. Also three science teachers participated in the program as mentors, who have more than twelve yearsteaching experience. We collected data such as video recordings of beginning teachers' classes, lesson plans,recordings of one to one mentoring and RTOP class observation reports. Mentor teachers observed and analyzed fiveclasses of each beginning teacher.Before the mentoring program, beginning teachers' teaching methods were more concept-oriented and teacher-oriented. They rarely used inquiry-elements including prediction, reasoning, hypothesizing and students were notactively engaged in communicative interactions in a classroom. But during the mentoring program, these teachersrecognized and responded to student diversity and encouraged all students to participate in science learning.Beginning teachers' teaching methods have changed to become student-oriented, teachers and students collaboratedin pursuit of ideas, and students often initiated new activities relevant to an inquiry. As a result, this mentoring program provided beginning teachers the opportunities to reflect on their own teachingand reform their classes. The results show that school-centered mentoring program is helpful to enhance beginningscience teachers' inquiry-oriented teaching ability.Key words: mentoring, beginning science teacher, inquiry-oriented teaching practicePusan National University