Elementary Teachers' Beliefs About, Perceived Capacities for, and Reported use of Scientific Inquiry to Promote Student Learning About and for the Environment

Abstract

For this study, I developed a survey instrument to measure 1) if elementary teachers differentiate between engaging students in scientific inquiry to promote learning about environmental issues and for environmental decision-making and action, 2) their beliefs about, perceived capacities for, and reported use of these teaching practices, and 3) relationships between these variables and relevant professional teacher characteristics. Based on publicly-available documents, I created a population (N=762) of elementary teachers in school districts within and immediately adjacent to the university community and administered the survey to a randomly-selected sample (n=250). I received a 52% response rate and employed quantitative analytical methods, including factor analyses. Findings suggest that elementary teachers do not differentiate between inquiry practices that promote student learning about environmental issues and scientific concepts and those for decision-making and action. Teachers strongly believed that they should engage students in scientific inquiry to learn about and for the environment. However, they perceived their capacities to do so as insufficient and, as a result, reported actually engaging students in these inquiry practices even less. Important relationships were observed between teachers’ beliefs about, perceived capacities, and reported use of inquiry to support students’ learning about and for the environment. For example, the amount of time the teachers reported teaching about the environment in general was significantly related to their beliefs about, perceived capacities, and reported use of inquiry practices to support student learning about and for the environment. Additionally, teachers who took an environmental teaching methods course reported believing more strongly that they should engage students in inquiry to learn about and for the environment. The relationship between number of environmental education-related professional development experiences teachers reported and their perceived capacities to engage students in inquiry to learn about and for the environment was also statistically-significant. However, the relationship between number of science content courses taken and teachers’ beliefs about, perceived capacities for, and reported use of inquiry were statistically-insignificant. These and other findings suggest that not only do teachers not differentiate between teaching and about and for the environment, but that certain experiences, such as formal coursework, professional development, and classroom experiences may better support teachers to engage in effective, inquiry-based science teaching about and for the environment.