تقويم مدى إلمام معلمي العلوم بخطوات الاستقصاء العلمي في تدريس العلوم والمعوقات التي تواجههم من وجهة نظرهم

This study aimed to investigate the extent of science teachers’ understanding of scientific inquiry in teaching science content in a province in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and continued to explore the obstacles that face science teachers when they use scientific inquiry. In addition, the study focused on testing a number of related variables. The researcher used a questionnaire consisting of (22) items related to the use of scientific inquiry and (17) items related to obstacles that may face science teachers when they use scientific inquiry, and (5) items to gather related information about some variables, including gender, years of teaching experience, number of students in each class, and the type of teacher preparation background. The study found that science teachers used scientific inquiry at a high level, (M = 4.56) with (SD = 0.57). The study showed that there was a number of obstacles facing science teachers when using scientific inquiry, with a difference on the impact of these obstacles. The results showed that the lack of sufficient financial support for purchasing educational materials was one of the most important obstacles, in addition to the number of lessons to be covered, the scarcity of sources of exploration in school, and the time that teachers need when they use scientific inquiry. The gender variable, school grade, years of teaching experience, students' number in the classroom, and the academic pattern did not show any statistical differences between investigated groups. But, the study found a statistical relationship between teaching experience and obstacles that face science teachers                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           when they use scientific inquiry.