Mechanism of Teacher and School Development through the Practice of Inquiry-Based Curriculum in High School

Abstract

This study conducted action research on three high schools that focus on preparing students to get into universities, and examined the mechanism of teacher and school development through the practice of inquiry-based curriculum in high school based on the concept of “professional capital” from the collected data obtained by semi-structured interviews with 12 teachers. As a result, a phenomenological model was generated to show the mechanism of teacher and school development through the design, practice and improvement of inquiry-based curriculum. The following three main findings were obtained from this model.

Firstly, the three high schools in this study designed inquiry-based curriculum in different processes, depending on whether teachers had experience with inquiry-based learning, either as individuals or as a group, against the background of the conflict between two competing teacher cultures: a conservative and individualism, and a challenging and collaborative. In this process, the improvement of curriculum was driven by organizational activities. The process of promoting the practice of inquiry-based curriculum simultaneously builds and strengthens the social capital of collegiality inside school organization and outside network, and this social capital leads to enhance individual teachers’ human capital and to draw individual and group decisional capital of teachers.

Secondly, the practice of inquiry-based curriculum was associated with the acquisition and improvement of the pedagogical skills of individual teachers, the acquisition of interdisciplinary knowledge that integrates knowledge of subject matter with inquiry-based curriculum, and even with a renewed their beliefs toward teaching. This was all based on the collaborative system developed within the schools. The practice of inquiry-based curriculum contributed to teacher professional development by enhancing the human capital while promoting the organizational development of the school through the power of social capital.

Thirdly, the practice of inquiry-based curriculum that has uncertainty requires teachers to accumulate practical experiences and judgments based on reflection in and on practices, observing students in their inquiry-based activities, and to devise and improve to solve problems, such as difficulties in practices and stagnation in teacher collaboration and external partnerships. Therefore, the practice of inquiry-based curriculum demands constant investment on individual and collective decisional capital of teachers. It also strengthens teachers’ autonomous and collective judgement, encourages collaborative reflection on practices, contributes to the accumulation of rich case experiences, and arouses their sense of challenge.

These findings reveal that the practice of inquiry-based curriculum in high schools implements the mechanism that contributes to teachers’ professional capital and school organizational development with promoting students’ growth alongside innovation of the inquiry-based curriculum itself. However, it is not a given that this mechanism automatically works when inquiry-based curriculum is designed and practiced. Its success depends on solid investment in strengthening social capital, such as building of a collaboration system among colleagues and promoting collaborative partnerships with external institutions.