Pre-Service Biology Teachers’ Views Towards Guided Inquiry-BasedInstructions in Laboratory

The inquiry-based teaching approach has played an important role in reform studies in science education in recent years (NRC, 2000). The biology teaching curriculum in Turkey also includes the achievements to develop science process skills of students such as research-questioning, critical thinking and problem solving. Laboratory applications play an important role in achieving these achievements. Laboratory applications offer the opportunity to be involved in the knowledge creating process while performing meaningful learning and science. This research is an experimental study conducted in the general biology laboratory. Laboratory activities prepared according to guided inquiry approach were applied to pre-service biology teachers. In the research, pre-service biology teachers’ perceptions about guided inquiry-based instructions were examined. Pre-service teachers’ views on the applied laboratory activities were asked, and the difficulties they faced when performing activities and the positive and negative aspects of the activities were determined. Pre-service teachers' perceptions about guided inquiry approach were determined through semistructured interviews and evaluated with the help of a qualitative data analysis program (MAXQDA). The data were analyzed through content analysis method (Mayring, 2002