Page 75 - Empowering pre-service teachers through inquiry - Lidewij van Katwijk

Pre-service teacher inquiry in implemented and attained curriculum
scale may show a slight social desirability bias, because undertaking pre-service
teacher inquiry is a compulsory component of teacher education and therefore may
be seen as important. The Inquiry competence scale measures whether pre-service
teachers are able to undertake inquiry, even though the participating pre-service
teachers had graduated and so should be able to do so. We used multiple methods
to diminish these biases, verifying the perceptions reported in the survey by asking 3 deeper questions in the focus group sessions. Third, this study is merely a snapshot
of a changing system; continued research related to the impact of pre-service teacher inquiry on inquiry-based work and the research culture in primary schools should be longitudinal. Studying the application and development of inquiry competencies of newly qualified teachers over time in particular would be an interesting direction for further research.
6 Conclusions
This evaluation of pre-service teacher inquiry into the Dutch primary teacher education curriculum, canvassing the views of both students and teacher educators, offers positive results overall. Pre-service teachers have positive attitudes toward pre-service teacher inquiry. Cognitively, they believe it is important and useful, and affectively, they think it is an interesting component of teacher education. They also feel, in alignment with teacher educators, that pre-service teacher inquiry is difficult but rewarding. Moreover, both pre-service teachers and teacher educators truly believe they are developing inquiry competence. These findings suggest that the implementation of pre-service teacher inquiry provides valuable training for newly qualified teachers, leading them to have an inquiry stance and conduct inquiry-based work (e.g., Baan et al., 2019; Cochran-Smith et al., 2009).
However, half the pre-service teachers in our study do not expect to undertake inquiry projects in their future jobs, which is similar to results of other studies. The findings of this study show two main reasons for this, that may lead to implications for teacher education in general: The formal way in which pre-service teacher inquiry is taught and assessed should be changed into a clearer teaching-learning trajectory starting in the first year of teacher education, with teaching activities in all four quadrants of the Healey & Jenkins model. Communication about the teaching– learning trajectory could improve so that all colleagues are aware of teaching activities and requirements for inquiry that take place outside their own subjects or years.
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