- Thefinal stage of TEPs (STAGE 2 TEP) aimed to integrate education about
inquiry practices with the assessment of these practices; i.e. teachers were
introduced to inquiry and its assessment within the TEPs. Inquiry methodologies
explored in the TEPs were those that are used to develop not only students’
content knowledge, but also skills that students develop through engaging in
inquiry practices, such as developing hypotheses, planning and carrying out
investigations, forming coherent arguments and working collaboratively, and
therefore the assessment of these skills is essential to ensure student
development.
Almost 700 in-service teachers participated in STAGE 2 TEPs across the twelve
participating countries—none of this group of teachers had attended any prior
SAILS TEP. The teachers were mainly involved in teaching the science disciplines
of biology, chemistry and physics, but also the additional subjects of general sci-
ence, technology and mathematics. Teachers from both lower and upper second
level schools attended. The in-service teachers taking part in the STAGE 2 TEPs
self-reported on a range of experience with inquiry. For instance, teachers in
Greece, Hungary and Poland had very little experience with inquiry before the
TEPs, teachers in Sweden mostly had some experience with inquiry, while those
from Belgium and the United Kingdom were a mixture of some and very experi-
enced teachers in IBSE. Based on educators experiences of implementing Stage 0
and Stage 1 TEPs, thefinal TEPs were designed to incorporate three core elements:
I. Experiencing Inquiry and Assessment,
II. Trialling IBSE and Assessment in the Classroom,
III. Developing IBSE and Assessment Resources.
I. Experiencing Inquiry and Assessment
All TEPs incorporated activities that gave teachers the opportunity to experience
inquiry as a learner. Teachers were also provided with inquiry-based resources that
they critiqued and discussed how they would implement and adapt in order to meet
the needs of their classroom curriculum. Teachers across all twelve countries,
through experience with inquiry activities, recognised the value of IBSE as a
teaching methodology and became motivated to try IBSE in their classrooms.
Teachers experienced the assessment of inquiry learning through several dif-
ferent approaches, e.g.
- Teachers completed an inquiry activity followed by a discussion of the learning
that occurred and the opportunities for assessment of that learning; - Teachers received“assessment feedback”from the educators during/after they
had carried out an inquiry activity; - A variety of assessment tools (such as extracts of written student work, self- and
peer assessment instruments, assessment rubrics) were introduced, discussed
and trialled in relation to an inquiry activity; - Teachers peer assessed the work of their colleagues;
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