The Science Writing Heuristic As a Tool: Professional Development of Inservice Teachers

Teachers' reluctance to implement inquiry-based approaches may be attributed to different interpretations of the underpinning theory. Efforts to help teachers implement effective teaching approaches should foster fundamental changes of beliefs, knowledge, and habits of practice that teachers deeply hold along with providing additive skills. The framework of the SWH emphasizes the role of classroom dialogical discussion in students' learning. The role of teacher when implementing constructivist approaches in student-oriented classrooms, differs markedly from traditional approaches, thus there is a need to study changes in teaching practice when using this specific tool. Teachers varied in their implementation of the SWH. Three criteria were constructed to define teachers' levels of implementation: epistemological belief, pedagogical practice, and teacher content knowledge. Different components were included within each criterion, with three scales used to rank each teacher's implementation within each criterion. The study is pointing to the importance of assisting science teachers with effective pedagogical strategies if there is to be an impact on students' performance on tests.