Physics students’ ideas about inquiry-based-education: A qualitative approach

Aleksandra Maksimovic 

University of Kragujevac

aleksandra.maksimovic@pmf.kg.ac.rs

Education for innovation and research

Abstract

In this paper, we analyzed the issue of Physics teaching in the context of Inquiry-Based-Education. The primary focus of the research was on investigating the perspectives of prospective Physics teachers. The introductory section addressed the concerning trend of declining student enrollment in fields related to this research. On one hand, there is a shortage of young people choosing teaching as a career, while on the other, there is a decline in student interest in STEM subjects. In this context, the area of future Physics teachers stands out as particularly deficient. Such circumstances influenced the possibilities of recruiting respondents and the scope of the sample. Based on the qualitative research, the paper presents the experience of two students of the Master's program Professor of Physics and Informatics at the Faculty of Science, University of Kragujevac, Republic of Serbia. The context in which the interviewees decided to become Physics teachers and their ideas and experiences in the field of Inquiry-Based-Education were studied through narrative inquiry. The implemented approach has been based on the ideas that the experiences from primary and secondary school and the attitudes that future teachers develop in these stages of education significantly influence the assessment of the "importance and usefulness" of the knowledge they learn at colleges, as well as later during their teaching careers and their continuous professional development. The obtained findings indicate that the respondents express an intrinsic motivation for the decision to become Physics teachers, that they deeply believe in the influence of teachers on supporting students' interest in a specific subject, and that they expect to apply the inquiry approach in their teaching work.

Key words

future teachers, narrative inquiry, physics, shortages of teachers, STEM