ASPECTS OF EFFECTIVELY MODELING GEOSCIENCE INQUIRY FOR PRECOLLEGE EARTH SCIENCE TEACHERS

An increasingly fervent call in precollege science education has stressed the need for “inquiry” as a mode of science teaching. In many cases, teachers have widely varying ideas of what “inquiry” actually means, from teacher-directed hands-on activities to open-ended, student-led investigations of Earth phenomena. Nominally, the process of inquiry science teaching should resemble the process of geoscience inquiry. But iconic, general models of science inquiry, such as those associated with physical sciences, do not always enjoy application in precollege Earth science teaching. It is incumbent upon those that provide professional development to Earth science teachers to develop and deliver professional development experiences that reflect the process of geoscience inquiries. To be sure, many providers of professional development have attempted to respond to this need, integrating elements of authentic questions, appropriate methods, and meaningful solutions into professional development experiences. But when these techniques are close to one's everyday work, they are often transparent and difficult to translate into scaffolding experiences for interested non-experts. Drawing from the philosophy and history of science and science education literature bases, this presentation uses the results of an analysis used to define a model in inquiry in instruction that is specific to the geosciences and more readily adaptable to the precollege Earth science classroom. Critical to this model is a framework that is readily understood by both Earth science teachers and professional development providers, such that teachers emerge empowered to examine their current practices and select or redesign classroom experiences that are more reflective of inquiry in the geosciences, while at the same time providing content experts with a means to parse their knowledge, skills, and habits of mind to better suit the teacher audience. Experiences with the application of this model in professional development settings, including examples of activities, will be discussed in this presentation. The varying levels of classroom inquiry are applied, reflecting a range of teacher structure and student autonomy. Such an approach supports targeted organization of instruction appropriate to specific teacher audiences.