Teacher education in the light of new tendencies in science curriculum: Inquiry-based chemistry teaching

The primary aim of this study is to develop an ?inquiry-based professional development workshop for the preservice and in-service teachers of chemistry? in order to contribute to preservice and in-service education by promoting the administration of inquiry-based teaching pedagogy in the classrooms by the science (chemistry) teachers in Turkey. The secondary goal is to examine the effects of the developed workshop on preservice teachers of chemistry in terms of their ?self-efficacy in chemistry teaching, scientific process skills, understanding of the nature of scientific knowledge, attitudes towards teaching science, perception of the change in their roles as teachers, beliefs about inquiry-based teaching pedagogy? as well as their views on the inquiry-based professional development workshop.The sampling of the study consists of 20 student teachers of chemistry in their 5th years at Gazi University, Gazi Education Faculty, Department of Chemistry Education within the 2006-2007 academic year. A mixed methodology involving quantitative and qualitative research was used. For the quantitative part of the study, single group pretest-posttest design among the experimental patterns were used in the administration of Scientific Process Skills Test (SPST), The Nature of Scientific Knowledge Scale (NSKS), Self-Efficacy Belief Scale for Chemistry Student Teachers (SBSCST) and Attitude Scale of Science Teaching (ASST). The data collected from the case studies of the student teachers of chemistry were examined qualitatively. The written documentation (participation diaries, written tasks) of the student teachers and the interviews served this purpose.The ?inquiry-based professional development workshop for preservice and in-service teachers of chemistry? developed in the study consisted of 7 sections depending on the literature. These were:Section 1: Activities Based-on InquirySection 2: What is Inquiry?Section 3: Models and Strategies Supporting InquirySection 4: Scientific Process Skills in InquirySection 5: Asking Questions in InquirySection 6: Misconceptions About Administration of InquirySection 7: Experience and Opinion Sharing About InquiryThe administration of the inquiry-based professional development workshop lasted 10 weeks in 3-hour sessions.For the quantitative analysis of the data collected in the study, SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Science) and Microsoft Office Excel were utilized. Hyperresearch Program was utilized for the qualitative analysis as well.The statistical analysis made concluded that the inquiry-based professional development workshop had significant and positive effects on student teachers? ?self-efficacy in chemistry teaching, scientific process skills, understanding of the nature of scientific knowledge and attitudes towards science teaching?.The findings of the quantitative analysis displayed that the participation of the student teachers of chemistry in the inquiry-based professional development workshop resulted in a change in their understanding ?from the traditional to the constructivist teaching?. In terms of the change in the roles of the student teachers as teachers, their tendencies moved from ?the traditional teacher to the constructivist teacher?. The results of the study showed that the beliefs of student teachers about the inquiry-based teaching pedagogy mainly reflected the attainments of the students. The conclusions come through the opinions of the students teachers on the inquiry-based professional development workshop indicated that they had positive attitudes towards the structure and benefits of the workshop.