TEACHERS’ READINESS TO IMPLEMENT INQUIRY FOR SCIENCE INSTRUCTION IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Abstract

This study aims to know teachers’ readiness in implementing inquiry for science
instructions in elementary school. This study implemented dominant less dominant
design or mixed method. The data was collected using purposive sampling technique.
There were 90 elementary school teachers from three regional offices, namely
Pangkalpinang, Serang, and Denpasar as respondents for this study. The instruments used
for this study was a questionnaire as the main data collection, in addition to an interview
and an observation form. 27 teachers from three regional offices were observed using the
form for Teacher Performance Assessment Instrument (TPAI). This instrument consists
of two parts, TPAI-1 for assessing the lesson plans and TPAI-2 for assessing the
performance of teachers in actuating the instruction. An in-depth interview was
conducted for 27 elementary school teachers after the observation. On the one hand, the
result shows that only a few teachers can be categorized ready for implementing inquiry
for science instruction. This was concluded from the appraisal of teachers’ preparation
and their activities during the instruction process. On the other hand, a large number of
teachers can be categorized not ready to implement inquiry for science instruction. Lack
of knowledge and information regarding the importance of inquiry in science instruction
can be mentioned as one of the obstacles in implementing inquiry for science instruction.
From this study, it is recommended that inquiry for science instruction needs science
equipment. However, the most important thing is an inquiry for science instruction needs
teachers to change their mindset that science instructions for elementary school must be
taught by inquiry.