Teachers' conceptions of teaching and learning with internet resources in science inquiry classrooms

This paper reports the results and findings of an online survey designed to explore in-service primary science teachers’ conceptions of the use of Internet resources in science inquiry learning. The survey consists of 75 items focusing on six areas regarding inquiry learning in science and the use of Internet resources – (1) teachers’ conception of inquiry learning by primary learners, (2) misconception of inquiry learning, (3) perceived difficulty in adopting inquiry learning, (4) use of different Internet resources, (5) use of Internet resources in their teaching, and (6) resistance to using Internet resources. The items are developed with reference to a number of related surveys and discussions. A 4-choice Likert scale has been adopted for the responses to each item. SPSS 17 has been used to analyse the data collected from 76 teachers. Interviews are conducted with volunteer respondents to gain a deeper understanding of teachers’ conception in each area and selected items. Initial findings suggest that the teachers understand inquiry-based learning and teaching quite well and their views towards using Internet resources in inquiry learning are quite positive, indicating teachers’ willingness to adopt Internet resources in their teaching despite the difficulties encountered. One of the biggest issues hindering teachers’ use of Internet resources is that it is very time consuming to look for appropriate resources from the Internet, reflecting the need to offer help to teachers in searching, selecting and using Internet resources. Individual responses are also found to be correlated to different background information of the teachers, for example, teachers with a science background use online statistical data more frequently than those without.