How to Relate Research on Students' Views and Teacher Education About Inquiry With Dissemination Activities

Inquiry-based science education (IBSE) has been acknowledged as central in many curriculum reforms since mid-nineties. In this chapter, the authors aim to investigate the way IBSE was implemented by Italian science secondary school teachers in the context of the Chain Reaction Project. Thirty teachers attended a professional development course aimed at familiarizing them with IBSE principles. Then, the teachers implemented in their classrooms a teaching-learning sequence (TLS) for at least 5 hours. About 900 students were involved in the activities. Effectiveness of the TLS was measured by administering a pre- and post-implementation questionnaire about Nature of Science. Findings suggest that TLS inquiry aspects have been only partially adopted by the teachers. Moreover, they found that students that obtained the lowest score in the post-test questionnaire were taught by the teachers that mostly transformed the proposed TLSs. The data suggest the need to develop specific training courses to support teachers in the implementation of new methodologies as IBSE.