Michiel Voet

History Teachers’ Knowledge of Inquiry Methods: An Analysis of Cognitive Processes Used During a Historical Inquiry

The present study explores secondary school history teachers’ knowledge of inquiry methods. To do so, a process model, outlining five core cognitive processes of inquiry in the history classroom, was developed based on a review of the literature. This process model was then used to analyze think-aloud protocols of 20 teachers’ reasoning during an inquiry task. It was found that less than half of the teachers used all cognitive processes during the inquiry. Based on the results, a distinction can be made between an integral, fragmentary, and cursory approach to inquiry. Further analysis suggests that there exists no clear pattern in the relation between teachers’ beliefs about the subject of history and their approach to inquiry. The implications for teacher training are discussed and outline how the process model could serve as an instructional tool that can contribute to a comprehensive training program for history teachers.

Teachers’ Adoption of Inquiry-Based Learning Activities: The Importance of Beliefs About Education, the Self, and the Context

Even though studies have shown that the impact of professional development on inquiry-based learning (IBL) tends to remain limited when it fails to consider teachers’ beliefs, there is little known about how these beliefs influence teachers’ adoption of IBL. In answer to this issue, the present study offers a framework that explains teachers’ use of IBL through three constitutive dimensions of beliefs systems, covering the constructs of education, the self, and the context. This framework is empirically investigated through a survey study with 536 secondary school history teachers. The resulting data are used to estimate a structural equation model (SEM), which indicates that the framework is able to explain a relatively large portion (38%) of the variance in teachers’ decision to implement IBL. Based on the findings, the implications for professional development and research on teachers’ use of IBL in general, and within history education in particular, are discussed.