Abstract—This investigation was done to understand how to
support teachers to adopt innovative inquiry based science
practices at elementary education. Here we present the results
of two inquiry-based activities that were done in three
elementary schools, involving six teachers and a total of 140
students. To understand the process of implementation of each
activity by the teachers and its impacts on students, a
qualitative methodology was used. The teachers were actively
involved in the activities, however, the process followed by them
was considerably different in what concerns time allocation.
Additionally, instead of joining experiments from the different
areas of conceptual knowledge, some of them chose only one
separate subject. As a consequence, the students’ achievements
were also different in each class. In the classes where the
students had more time for discussion, more adequate answers
were given to the initial questions, whereas, in the classes that
devoted less time to the activity some competences, like
observation skills and planning experiments were not achieved.
It is suggested that although the creation of new curriculum
materials can facilitate the adoption of new practices by
teachers, this is not sufficient. Teacher's ownership of the
activities is perhaps the keystone of this entire process.
Index Terms—Inquiry, science education, teaching
innovation.
Diana Boaventura is with Escola Superior de Educação João de Deus,
Lisboa, Portugal and with Guia Marine Laboratory, Oceanographic Center,
Science Faculty of Lisbon University, Portugal (e-mail:
d.boaventura@netcabo.pt).
Cláudia Faria is with Institute of Education, University of Lisbon,
Portugal (e-mail: cbfaria@ie.ul.pt).
Cite: Diana Boaventura and Cláudia Faria, "Science Inquiry-Based Activities in Elementary Education: How to Support Teachers‟ Practices?," International Journal of Information and Education Technology vol. 5, no. 6, pp. 451-455, 2015.