Page 71 - Empowering pre-service teachers through inquiry - Lidewij van Katwijk

Pre-service teacher inquiry in implemented and attained curriculum
students learn how to undertake inquiry projects; in all groups, more than 90% of the
ratings are positive (M > 4.6 on the 6-point scale).
With regard to the Ease scale, the results for pre-service teachers and teacher
educators were the same (M = 2.6), and more than 85% of all respondents regarded
pre-service teacher inquiry as difficult. Among focus group participants, pre-service
teachers indicated taking pride in successfully completing their pre-service teacher 3 inquiry, for which writing emerged as the most difficult part, leading to feelings of
frustration and dislike:
...and that causes a lot of stress... But the report kept coming back [from the supervisor] ... and rewriting again and again ... frustrating! (PST_A1)
Nevertheless, students recognize that writing is important in the process of becoming a teacher:
Also, for example, with the preliminary investigation, you do see things happening, but if you have to draw a conclusion ... you have to write something about it, then you start to think better about how that went. And what can I really get out of it. (PST_F4)
Teacher educator participants also link the difficulty level of inquiry work to the pride of the students who complete it:
No friction, no shine! (TE_B3)
Our analysis of the open question about the most important learning outcome shows that 46% of pre-service teachers (n = 299) mention research skills (Table 3.6):
...to see how to get a deeper level in inquiry and to use literature in a better way, also for research methods. (PST_D)
Moreover, 40% of pre-service teachers indicate they have gained increased knowledge about the study topic:
Knowledge about reading comprehension and where to find new information about the topic. (PST_G1)
This knowledge often is combined with application of the findings in practice. About one-quarter of the respondents mention an inquiry habit of mind or related characteristic.
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