An inquiry and context-based activity supporting lifelong learning: Enzymes in Daily Life

Abstract

This research evaluated the effect of guided inquiry approach-based laboratory activity within the scope of lifelong learning, in which daily life context is used, on developing pre-service science teachers' learning processes. The study groups the research consisted of six pre-service science teachers who were seniors in the science education department at a university in the west of Turkey. The holistic single-case design was used as the research method in this study. One of the topics related to enzymes we encounter in many areas of daily life is the concept of enzymatic browning. In this study, starting from a daily life context, an activity that includes the chemical change emphasis underlying the enzymatic browning event and the factors affecting the work of enzymes is discussed. In this context, the guided inquiry learning approach, in which the hypothetico-deductive reasoning cycle is used in laboratory practices in teacher education, is based on the activity. At the end of the activity, experiment reports, science journals, and concept maps were evaluated. As a result of the evaluation, it was seen that the students not only designed scientific research and tested their hypotheses consistently and accurately but also obtained the subject gains related to enzymes and chemical change. Since it is understood that the activity supports lifelong learning in terms of both the skills developed and the ideas reflected by the pre-service teachers, using similar practices in teacher education can be recommended.