ABSTRACT
Inquiry has been replacing lectures and demonstrations. It is becoming such a central feature in science teaching that there is a set of guidelines for what counts as inquiry learning. There is a lot of agreement about what knowledge and skills are required to engage in the procedures, which one can identify in summaries of experimental studies of inquiry. The idea of inquiry which foregrounds student agency and active learning, makes theoretical and practice sense, and countries can see the value for national success. The original inquiry programme the researchers set out to study, called ‘science immersion’, provided professional learning and development (PLD) for teachers to implement specially designed inquiry-based curriculum units. The immersion science teachers had to design and seek the requisite supplies through district curriculum support centres or obtain them on their own. The science immersion programme provided PLD in the form of single-day voluntary workshops, more extensive three-day training for lead teachers, and further two-day workshops.
