Page 60 - Empowering pre-service teachers through inquiry - Lidewij van Katwijk

Chapter 3
These inquiry competencies are intertwined in practice; for example, it is not possible to inquire without using research knowledge or skills. However, the distinction between the competencies is functional with regard to teaching and learning related to pre-service teacher inquiry. Which teaching and learning activities are suitable for teaching and stimulating to work inquiry-based? Table 3.1 (next page) displays the program teaching and learning activities that literature identifies as effective in engaging pre-service teachers in inquiry and developing inquiry competence.
Study context
Our study focuses on Dutch primary teacher education that leads to a professional bachelor degree. Because pre-service teacher inquiry has become a compulsory element in these programs, the programs now pay much attention to intensive research-skill professionalization of teacher educators, teaching about research and inquiry, and supervision of pre-service teachers’ projects (Geerdink, Boei, Willemse, Kools, & Van Vlokhoven, 2016). Although Dutch institutes of teacher education are free to design their own curricula according to nationally determined teaching standards, a previous document analysis of pre-service teacher inquiry in the programs shows strong similarities in teaching activities and assessment (Van Katwijk et al., 2019a). Approximately one-third of the Dutch primary teacher education program is directly related to practice; it concludes with a practical period of 20 weeks, during which pre- service teachers teach autonomously three days a week. Students spend about 20 to 30 ECTS (European Credit Transfer System) in total on pre-service teacher inquiry in a teaching–learning trajectory over four years. As their final capstone activity (9–15 ECTS), they undertake pre-service teacher inquiry projects that are directly connected to their own practices, for example, design research or action research. Most of these inquiries are small in scale and involve qualitative design, limited quantitative data, and use of practice-based literature such as handbooks and professional literature (Baan, Gaikhorst, van‘t Noordende, & Volman, 2019). With regard to described teaching activities and assessments, all institutes focus on research skills (i.e., Quadrant IV, research-oriented), despite citing the development of an inquiry habit of mind (Quadrants I + II, research-tutored and research-based) as their main purpose (Van Katwijk et al., 2019a).
Research questions
To gain insight into the purpose and value of pre-service teacher research in Dutch primary teacher education, we used the curriculum model of Van den Akker (2003)
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