2017 Volume 58 Issue 1 Pages 41-53
Since the publication of the National Science Education Standards (NSES) in 1996, learning science through inquiry has been regarded as the heart of science education in the U.S.A. However, the TIMSS 1999 Science Video Study showed that inquiry-based teaching has been taking place less in the U.S. than in Japan. This study examined similarities and differences in how American and Japanese lower-secondary-school science teachers think and feel about inquiry-based teaching. Teachers’ attitudes and beliefs toward the use of inquiry in science teaching were measured through a newly developed survey instrument called STAIB (survey for measuring Science Teachers’ Attitudes towards Inquiry-Based teaching) (n=191). The psychometric development of the attitude scale is described. An exploratory factor analysis identified 10 factors that characterize lower-secondary-school science teachers’ attitudes and beliefs, and a multivariate analysis with country as a factor variable was performed for the 10 factors. The results show that country has a significant main effect on the overall factor scores. The univariate analysis on each of the factors identified five specific areas toward which U.S. and Japanese teachers felt differently. The results indicated that U.S. teachers more strongly agreed with inquiry-based teaching that promotes the use of the scientific method than teachers in Japan did. Furthermore, the results indicated that Japanese teachers felt less comfortable in helping student activities and questions than American teachers did. The cultural implications of the findings, including the differences in teacher education systems, are discussed.
