The indicators of becoming an effective science teacher: inquiract and SCEPSATI

In order to establish those practices which underpin a science teaching performance that combines pupil enthusiasm and creative classrooms, it will be necessary to uncover evidence of inquiry-based learning experiences in science, both in and beyond the classroom, that can provide a warrant for theory and practice that will assist new science teachers in becoming effective. In response to earlier small-scale research (McNally et al 1994; 1997) which found that beginning teaching was an affective transition in which relationships with colleagues and pupils were crucial, inquiract is designed to find out more about the actual interactions between beginning science teachers and significant others. The instrument will take the form of a graphic flowchart onto which new teachers will be able to map their inquiry-based science teaching interactions during their initial months of teaching (Gray et al. 2005).