Teacher professional development and inquiry-based instruction: literature review

Abstract

Innovative strategies can revolutionise student learning if implemented properly. Nonetheless, teachers need sufficient training to do this. Therefore, teacher professional development programmes should be reviewed to see if they provide sufficient training for teachers to effectively implement inquiry-based instruction, since it is considered one of these innovative methods. This paper synthesises the existing literature on teacher professional development for inquiry-based instruction from the fields of education and social science between 2001 and 2022. The EBSCO host library, Scopus, Science Direct, ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, Linked Papers, and Taylor & Francis data bases were used for this review. The titles, abstracts, keywords, and publication dates of the selected records were converted into Microsoft Excel, where they were then reviewed to identify the publications that were in line with the scope of the study. A total of 135 studies, including articles and dissertations, were reviewed for this study. The findings of this study provide insight into the gaps in the existing literature on inquiry-based instruction and teacher professional development, as well as suggestions for potential areas for further research.

Keywords: education field; innovative methods; inquiry-based instruction; social studies; teacher development