Analysis Of Inquiry Teaching In The Middle School Biology Class

The key to the success of curriculum reform lies in implementation. As far as curriculumdecision-making level is concerned, curriculum implementation is the process to implementthe designed curriculum program. On the level of teacher-student, curriculum implementationis the process whether the advocated teaching methods are put into practice. Whetherscientific curriculum decisions exist in the process of curriculum implementation and whetherteaching methods can be changed successfully, to some extent, determine the depth andbreadth of the curriculum reform. New curriculum reform of junior high school Biologyadvocates inquiry learning. To implement the idea of curriculum standards well, the directionof reform policies from the level of curriculum decision-making must be well adjusted andtextbooks’ compiling should be done well. On the level of teaching practice, teachers shouldbe led to change their traditional teaching methods. Only by realizing the positive interactionbetween these two levels, can we truly implement the concept of promoting inquiry learning.Therefore, it is difficult to obtain a good effect for the reform by only requiring teachers tochange their teaching methods.This present research questions are based on the background that the present researcherhad experienced the new curriculum reform as a front-line teacher of middle school biologyand teaching reform, truly from the grassroots teaching front-line. The research questions aredetermined from the cross-zone area between the changes in curriculum implementation andteachers’ teaching methods. Based on the analysis of20Biology classes from5schools, thepresent research aims to have a better understanding of the inquiry teaching in the currentBiology class in middle school and extract the fundamental issues in the inquiry teaching ofBiology. The purpose of the present study is not limited to finding problems, the focus of thisstudy is to escape from the paradigm of solving the problem superficially and try to explorefrom the perspective of curriculum decision-making, compilation of teaching materials andteachers’ teaching method, therefore, the problems can be solved fundamentally.The study design is mainly based on the essence of biology classroom teaching. Anframework has been constructed to observe and analyze the inquiry teaching in the currentBiology class. Observation framework(SIAR) mainly sets up four observing dimensions.They are the inquiry subject(S), the inquiry interaction(I), the inquiry ability(A) and theinquiry resources(R). Then multi-dimensional observation points are set up according to theteachers’ real needs to improve their inquiry teaching situation and the researcher’s needs toassess the inquiry ability of different schools, different classes and different teachingprocedures. An overall analysis of the inquiry teaching status in the current junior high schoolbiology classes is provided through the observation of20biology classes, from the level of.After the general analysis, with the use of SIAR framework,20classes from5schools wereobserved from the dimensions of inquiry subject; inquiry interaction; inquiry ability; inquiryresources. The findings show that after more than10years’ new curriculum reform, comparedwith traditional biology teaching, inquiry teaching has been made considerable progress in thejunior high school Biology class. Teachers, in terms of awareness of inquiry teaching andteaching practice, have showed and practiced the idea of exploration at different degrees.Problems still exist in the process of curriculum implementation, such as students as inquirysubject is not obvious, and the lack of multi-dimensional interaction between teachers andstudents and between students and students, etc.in the curriculum implementation process ofinquiry teaching.Based on the observation and the findings, reasons behind the problems have beenexplored. Inquiry teaching is advocated from the level of teaching method but not from thelevel of curriculum, which affects the textbooks compilation accordingly. It should be thedirect cause of the current situation. The influence of high school entrance examination andcollege entrance examination add some decisive influence and result in a series of issues inthe inquiry teaching, which should be considered as the most fundamental and deepest reason.Teachers held beliefs of "transferring", the deep-rooted sense of the role of teachers, the classsizes being too large, the teaching hours being extruded, and teachers’ lack of professionalquality are the formation of the indirect causes of inquiry teaching.On the basis of the above research, practical measures are provided. These responses arenot Utopian countermeasures from the idealistic point of view. They measures have taken fullaccount of the fact that current college entrance examination system can not be improved in ashort period, teachers’ quality can not be upgraded immediately, class size can not bealleviated overnight. From the level of curriculum decision-making, teachers should be able tocarry out at least one to two complete inquiry in one semester. As far as textbook compilationis concerned, the current idea of textbook compilation should be improved and one or twocomplete unit of inquiry should be supplied. On teaching method, model teaching can beadopted. Therefore, teachers’ inquiry teaching ability will be improved. These practices willhelp the promotion of the idea of inquiry teaching fundamentally.