A case study of increasing vocational high school teachers practices in designing interdisciplinary use of scientific inquiry in curriculum design

Abstract

The primary objective of this study was to determine how experience in learning to teach scientific inquiry using a practical approach affected teacher's attitudes, evaluations of use of inquiry and their actual design of inquiry based instruction. The methodology included the use an approach incorporating inquiry methodology combined with a technology-infused and engineering rich approach called "Intelligent Robotics" to help teachers learn and use a new approach to teaching scientific inquiry. The findings showed that these teachers progressively moved from more teacher-centered thinking about teaching to student-centered thinking and actions incorporating scientific inquiry. They also worked together in designing an interdisciplinary inquiry curriculum, providing an effective alternative to traditional rigid standards based curriculum and teacher directed instruction.