The study was part of the research project StudentResearch (2007-2010), with the goal that students were to become knowledge builders in practices that have some common traits with scientific inquiry. The project was financially supported by The Research Council of Norway.The thesis includes three articles representing three different levels concerning teachers’ role developing science inquiry in a situated practice. The three levels are: (a) the individual teacher – how the teacher’s beliefs bring scope and force to the practice of open inquiry in a situated practice; (b) the science classroom – how the teacher scaffolds the students during open inquiry; (c) the school – how science inquiry can be developed as a collaboration between teachers and researchers at school.The first article offer an understanding why a positivist epistemology and related myths concerning NOS are robust in school versions of scientific inquiry even though they go against the “appropriate” views of the nature of science (NOS). The case study reveals that what seemed to be a teacher’s positivist position towards NOS and scientific inquiry was embedded in a broader concern about pedagogical considerations and personal engagement with low-achieving students. The implications are that teachers (students) should be given the opportunity for guided reflections on personal experiences and commitment to scientific inquiry in order to become more conscious of how they affect their beliefs and practice.The second article identify emerging issues concerning how the teacher support the students providing them with a balance of structure and space – and how it constitutes the students inquiry process in the different phases of the inquiry. The study indicate that there exist a necessary tension and interplay between structure and space, creating what can be seen as a driving force providing both exploration and direction for the open inquiry. The notion of “structure and space” is suggested as a thinking tool for teachers’ (students) to increase competence on how to scaffold more authentic versions of scientific inquiry in school.The third article explores possibilities and constrains with collaborative action research between teachers and researchers to improve science inquiry in school. It draws on two action research project within StudentReserach experiencing many similar challenges. In both practices we found that the transition between planning change and what happened in the actual classroom practice was difficult. We were also concerned about our role as researchers in the collaboration – how to bring in relevant perspectives from educational research. We suggests that the collaborative effort developing concrete tools for classroom practice of science inquiry can act as an impetus for change when it is supported by both educational literature and the situated practice. Thus, the distinguished voices of the teacher and researcher will complement each other and might act to bridge the gap between research and practice of science inquiry.
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