Designing an observation protocol for professional development providers and mentors working with scientific inquiry‐supported classroom settings

Abstract

Several observation protocols in different theoretical frameworks and components have been designed and validated by teacher trainers and professional development providers to capture and categorize observational data on the characteristics and level of inquiry in science practices. However, certain constraints limit their wide use, such as the neglect of certain indicators of scientific inquiry, the scoring of just summative goals, or the necessity for extensive observer training. The present study, therefore, aims to propose a tool that assists professional development providers and mentors in diagnosing the closeness of practices to scientific inquiry in the context of various settings, from traditional didactic lectures to scientific inquiry, making it easily operational for self and peer evaluations as well as 360‐degree video feedback. The method concentrated on multiple observations provides supportive evidence about the tool's internal consistency coefficient, the relationship between its components, and the inter‐rater reliability coefficient between multiple scorers. The results highlight that the tool, which includes the components of course structure, course overview, and teacher–student communication, has the potential to contribute to the growing library of observation protocols.