The Role of Teacher Stance When Infusing Inquiry Questioning Into Middle School Science Classrooms

The purpose of this study was to describe how a teacher's stance of wonder, curiosity, and exploration during the use of hypothetical inquiry situations served as a way for the teacher to address her goals for students to be more vocal members of the learning community; to encourage critical and creative thinking in the students; to provide them with meaningful, context‐rich opportunities for synthesizing personal past experience with ongoing classroom instruction; to enhance socialization skills in the middle school environment; and to provide an improvisational atmosphere for both learning and teaching.