Changing teacher behaviour and pupil attainment in inquiry-based social studies lessons

Abstract

Over the last decade there has been a growing emphasis upon inquiry-based teaching in social studies. While there is no agreed definition of the inquiry method, there are particular goals and outcomes associated with this method of teaching and learning; fostering children’s thinking processes is regarded as much more important than the accumulation of factual information. Asking questions has been recognised as one of the best ways to foster and develop inquiry learning in pupils, and yet previous research has shown that there is a need for teachers to ask a wider range of questions than they presently do. One way to help teachers learn additional questioning skills is through an in-service programme. The present study was designed to find whether two kinds of in-service courses would modify teacher questioning. Twenty-four teachers in six Intermediate schools in a large New Zealand provincial city and a satellite town, were assigned to three treatment groups. The experimental treatments were: an in-service programme which taught specific questioning skills; another in-service course which dealt with inquiry teaching in a general way; and a no-treatment control group. The usual classes of the teachers formed the pupil sample. Over a five-month period, each teacher conducted three 20-minute social studies discussion lessons which were taperecorded. Baseline data were collected in a pretreatment lesson, and posttreatment data were gathered from discussion lessons taken shortly after the experimental in-service courses and also after a 12-week delay. As well as finding out whether in-service courses were followed by changes in teacher questioning, the experiment was also designed to see if pupil attainment was affected by any such changes. Parallel tests were constructed from the content of each lesson, and comprised four subtests which were intended to measure a range of thinking skills considered important in inquiry-based social studies discussion. From lesson transcripts, teacher questions were coded, using a classification system designed for this study. Statistical analyses indicated that the skills course teachers were able significantly to reduce their asking of cognitive memory and convergent questions, and to increase their use of evaluative and divergent kinds. They also talked much less, and encouraged more extended patterns of pupil discussion. In delayed lessons, the changes were maintained to a significant extent. The teachers who took the general course changed very little in comparison with the control group teachers. Analysis of test scores indicated that the pupils of the teachers who took the skills course significantly increased their production of answers to free response items in the evaluative and divergent thinking subtests without decreasing other attainments. The results of the experiment showed that in-service programmes which try to change teachers’ questioning, and associated skills need to give attention to identifying the behaviours, communicating them clearly, providing practise opportunities, and giving feedback about performance. When teachers ask a wide range of questions in social studies lessons, pupils’ evaluative and creative thinking can be increased, both in discussion and in free response tests.