Effectiveness of Inquiry-Based Instructional Design for Developing the Scientific Competency and Interdisciplinary Knowledge of Preservice Elementary Teachers

To assist preservice elementary teachers in attaining scientific competence, knowledge, and understanding of interdisciplinary concepts, a teacher education model--the combined individual microteaching, modeled teaching, and inquiry-based team-teaching (CIMIT) model--was established, and its effectiveness was evaluated. A quasiexperimental design was adopted, and 57 preservice elementary teachers from 2 classes of a science education preparatory course were included in the analysis (30 in the experimental group and 27 in the control group). The 18-week course comprised 36 h of classes. Before and after the course, all participants completed pretests and posttests, respectively, that measured basic scientific competency and subject matter knowledge. Quantitative and qualitative data were also collected and analyzed. The instruction of the CIMIT group comprised 3 stages: individual microteaching, modeled demonstration inquiry--based teaching by an expert teacher, and inquiry-based team teaching. For the control group, the inquiry-based team-teaching stage was omitted. The results validated the effectiveness of the CIMIT model. First, the experimental group exhibited a significantly greater improvement in scientific competency and knowledge than did the control group. Second, after training, the experimental group's knowledge of interdisciplinary concepts increased for all seven interdisciplinary concepts.