Guided Inquiry-Based Physics Teaching: An Analysis of Prospective Teachers’ Academic Achievements and Views about the Method

This study was conducted to determine the effects of guided inquiry-based physics teaching practices on prospective teachers’ academic achievements in electric currents and basic electric circuits taught in general physics classes and to assess their views on this process. A pretest - posttest quasi-experimental pattern with a control group, one of the quantitative research methods, was applied in this study. The control group followed a pattern with only one active member, the teacher, who lectured and used a whiteboard, while the experimental group followed a process in which several basic electric materials and guided inquiry-based instructions were used. To determine academic achievement level of the prospective teachers, Electricity Concept Test (ECT) was applied as both pretest and posttest. The ECT consisted of three phases and 12 multiple-choice questions. As a result of the study, the academic achievement of the experimental group was determined to be significantly greater than the academic achievement of the control group. However, the most striking finding of the study was the fact that prospective teachers did not trust the information they produced as a result of inquiry activities.