Comparison of views about inquiry-based teaching held by science teachers from Hong Kong, Mainland China and United States

Abstract

We report on an international collaborative study which aims to investigate and compare the views about inquiry-based teaching among science teachers in the US, Beijing and Hong Kong who have different experience in inquiry-based teaching and come from different cultural backgrounds, representative of the West, the East and where West meets with East respectively. Ten teachers from each participating regions reviewed the videos of four physics lessons and completed a questionnaire indicating their views on each lesson. They were also asked to provide reasons to explain whether each lesson is a good example of inquiry-based teaching. We identify significant differences on a number of aspects including “formulating explanation from evidence”, “arguing and communicating explanation” and “safety measures in an investigation”. The results provide a rational basis for the design of teacher training programmes which aim to shape teachers’ conceptions of inquiry-based teaching. This will improve the quality of learning of science and most importantly develop students’ inquiring ability which is transferable to solving real-life problems in a scientific and systematic manner. It also helps researchers better understand their colleagues from other countries and realize that inquiry is not a construct with a universal definition.