Target inquiry: Impacts of a research experience for teachers

CHED 369

Ryan Wissner, bigweeze09@comcast.net, Deborah G. Herrington, herringd@gvsu.edu, and Ellen J. Yezierski, yezierse@gvsu.edu. Department of Chemistry, Grand Valley State University, 327 Padnos Hall of Science, 1 Campus Drive, Allendale, MI 49401
Many high school teachers learned science by lectures and verification laboratory experiments and are often uncomfortable with implementing inquiry in the classroom. One way to assist teachers in this task is to provide them with an authentic science inquiry experience. Although research experiences for high school teachers (RET) are not new, the Target Inquiry (TI) program uses a slightly different approach to its RET. In particular, TI incorporates a course to help prepare teachers to conducting research before the RET in addition to a course to help teachers make connections between the RET and the classroom. Data from teacher interviews, journal articles, evaluations, and classroom observations as well as mentor evaluations were collected in order to determine how the RET impacted: (i) teachers beliefs about the inquiry process; (ii) teachers chemistry knowledge; and (iii) teachers classroom practices. This poster will present these findings and implications for developing successful RET programs.