Analysis of Essential Features of Inquiry Found in Articles Published in The Science Teacher, 1998–2007

In order to provide a picture of how inquiry is practiced in everyday science classrooms, the articles published in The Science Teacher from 1998 to 2007 were analyzed for explicit evidence of features of inquiry. Inquiry was operationally defined by the essential features detailed in Inquiry and the National Science Education Standards (NRC 2000 Inquiry and the national science education standards2000Washington, DCNational Academy Press [Google Scholar]). Few articles described full inquiry. Gathering and analyzing evidence were significantly more prominent than the other features of inquiry, which were present in less than 25% of the articles. This pattern may be related to teachers’ viewing inquiry more as a process than as a vehicle for learning science content. Each feature found was also rated for whether it was student- or teacher-directed. Most activities were teacher-directed.