LATVIAN CHEMISTRY TEACHERS' SKILLS TO ORGANIZE STUDENT SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY

Abstract

In 2005 a new chemistry subject standard for basic education was developed in Latvia. It includes a new component, ‘scientific inquiry’. In order to develop students’ inquiry skills, their teachers need to master them first. The purpose of this study was to examine Latvian chemistry teachers' skills to effectively organize student scientific inquiry within their lessons. From 2009 to 2011, experts from the project ‘Natural Sciences and Mathematics’ observed and analyzed the performance of 18 chemistry teachers at basic schools in 31 lessons. 56 lesson observation and analysis work sheets were analized on the student scientific inquiry. Chemistry teachers with experience in modernized chemistry contents have better skills to plan the study process towards the results, to apply study methods correctly and organize collaboration among students, to provide efficient feedback, analyze their performance in the lesson and reflect on it. In order to develop teachers’ skills to organize student scientific inquiry, it is important to focus on teachers’ skills to organize their work during the lesson and to reflect on it. This can be done through organizing teachers’ learning groups for investigating their professional performance, conferences and experience exchange seminars with lesson observation and analyses. Key words: chemistry teachers’ skills, lesson observation, scientific inquiry.