Investigation of UAE Teachers’ and Students’ Perceptions and Practices of Formative Assessment of Inquiry-Based Learning
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Date
2015-11
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The British University in Dubai (BUiD)
Abstract
The use of inquiry-based learning (IBL) in science education is seen as one of the effective strategies to develop students’ critical thinking skills and train them to become problem solvers for future problems. Because the Researches and investigations concerning education in Arab countries are of limited scale, only a few data is available about science teaching and learning practices. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate students’ and teachers’ perceptions towards formative assessment (FA) and inquiry-based learning in science classrooms, in addition to investigating how the formative assessment of inquiry-based learning is currently implemented and finding out the best practices in the educational field.
Multiple tools following the mixed method approach were used to achieve this study. The tools comprise two versions of formative assessment of inquiry-based learning questionnaire for teachers and students, in addition to lesson observation form that was used to collect and interpret the best practices in actual classroom environments. Three groups of participants contributed to the study with a total number of 535 students and 51 teachers who responded to the questionnaires, and 10 teachers volunteered for lesson observations.
The major results indicated that formative assessment strategies were implemented effectively in science lessons. However, inquiry-based activities were implemented with less efficiency in all science classrooms. A positive relationship between formative assessment and inquiry-based practices was found from teachers’ perspective. Therefore, as a result of this study, several recommendations were provided to better prepare teachers to use FA to evaluate IBL activities and eventually promote students’ performance in science education in the UAE.
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DISSERTATION WITH DISTINCTION
Keywords
formative assessment, inquiry-based learning, United Arab Emirates (UAE), science education