Abstract:

In this study, the opinions of pre-service early childhood education teachers on the use of an inquiry-based approach in an Inclusive Education course were examined. The study participants consisted of 40 pre-service early childhood education teachers. During the 16 week course period, the flow of the lessons was provided by using open inquiry as one of the types of inquiry-based approaches. In the last week of the course, pre-service early childhood education teachers completed an evaluation to describe their opinions about using inquiry-based learning methods. The data from these evaluations were analyzed using content analysis. As a result, three themes, eight categories, and forty-two sub-categories were formed. The students expressed that the inquiry-based educational approach was effective in the learning and teaching process throughout the course. They reported that some of the reasons this method had a positive effect included: students having chance to ask the questions they wanted answered and discussed, coming to class having studied, participating in the lesson actively, student-centered active learning, discussing samples from real life, and having a democratic classroom environment.

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