Extending the gifted science student: what the teacher needs to know during enquiry-based teaching

Most science teachers would agree that investigative science is a highly effective way to teach science. Students build their scientific understanding and investigative skills through scientific enquiry processes where they make connections between their prior knowledge and new ideas and evidence. Scientific enquiry, especially open enquiry, has long been espoused for extending the gifted student in science (Park and Oliver, 2009; Yuen-Yan et al., 2010). Windschitl (2003) described four types of scientific enquiry: 1) confirmation experiences or ‘cook book labs’ that are used to verify a fact, 2) structured enquiry through which students are given a question and procedure to discover an unknown answer, 3) guided enquiry through which teachers allow students to investigate a prescribed problem using their own methods and 4) open enquiry through which students form their own questions and conduct independent investigations (p. 114) – but what role does the teacher play in this? And does the teacher alter this role when undertaking enquiry-based teaching of gifted students?