Teaching approaches and strategies for science
Teaching Science is not about preparing students for a world that is static and fixed, but it concerns getting students ready to cope with changes and challenges in their lives. Traditional direct instruction in Science generally focuses on mastery of content with less emphasis on the development of scientific skills and attitudes; students are the receivers while the teacher the dispenser. In most classroom contexts, teachers are preoccupied with academic activities in pursuit of the schools’ successes; often in the form of their students gaining as many A's as possible. This scenario does not help students learn in a meaningful manner. This study specifically examines how meaningful science learning could be achieved via the introduction of an inquiry-based Science teaching approach. Three trainee teachers who underwent their teaching practice In Semester 2 2011/2012 session participated in the study. The study employed qualitative research design whereby data were mainly obtained through interview and document analysis in the form of lesson plans and reflective journal. Occasional observations on the way the trainee teachers apply the inquiry-based teaching strategies and model exposed to and taught in the Science Teaching Method course they took in the previous semester were also noted. The findings revealed that the inquiry-based teaching strategies employed were able to stimulate excitement among students when learning science. The ZYL teaching model was also proposed at the end of the study. This proposed teaching model summarizes the strategies of inquiry discovery in Science Education that can be adapted in science teaching process
