Results of the Relevance of Science Education Study (Schreiner & Sjøberg, 2004) illustrate that students in many countries have only little interest in science and in learning science. To cause a change, different reports (AAAS, 2000; NRC, 2000; Rocard et al., 2007) suggest that Inquiry-Based Science Education (IBSE) might be an innovative approach to enhance learning outcomes in a positive manner. In Europe, different educational projects, for example the PROFILES project, want to support this change by disseminating the IBSE approach in Europe (Bolte et al., 2012).

For implementing IBSE in schools, teachers play an important role (Bolte et al., 2012). Therefore, one goal of the PROFILES working group at the Freie Universität Berlin (FUB) is the develop­ment and realization of IBSE-related Continuous Profes­sional Development (CPD) programs for pre-service science teacher students, as an early start of CPD will prepare the next generation of science teachers in a positive way (Aebli, 2001). Loucks-Horsley et al. (1996) and Loucks-Horsley et al. (2003) show how CPD programs should be designed to achieve positive results. Considering these design principles (for example: ‘develop awareness’, ‘put the IBSE approach into practice’, ‘determine impacts on personality and promote collaboration with others’ (Loucks-Horsley et al., 2003)), pre-service teacher students plan and perform IBSE-oriented lessons about environmental pollution in the context of a science education treatment course at the FUB. During the treatment course, the pre-service students are supported by a science educator, who introduces a specific IBSE model (according to NRC, 2000; AAAS 2000) on a theoretical and practical basis to the participants. Overall, the treatment course focuses on the following topics and objectives:

Science teacher students…

• studying the IBSE model on a theoretical and practical basis,
• discussing advantages and disad­vantages of IBSE in school practice,

• designing and trying out inquiry-based learning environments to topics of pollution in a preparation unit independently,  
• reflecting and discussing pros and cons of inquiry-based science learning environments based on their preparation experiences with IBSE,
• using inquiry-based teaching in the classroom for lessons about environmental pollution,
• reflecting own IBSE-oriented lessons and the lessons of peers,
• are active involved in the course to ensure the development of teacher ownership.

For an evaluation of the impact of this CPD course, we want to analyse the participants’ attitudes and concerns about the implementation of IBSE with a pre-post-test design.

Following the theory of planned behavior (TPB) (Ajzen, 1991), positive attitudes affect the intention to implement IBSE in school practice, because the stronger the intention, the more likely it becomes to be performed in practice.

To gain insights into pre-service teacher students’ attitudes and concerns about the implementation of IBSE, we refer also to the Concern-Based Adop­tion Model (CBAM) by Hall and Hord (2011), and especially to their Stages of Concern (SoC) theory and questionnaire (Hall & Hord, 2011). The SoC model is based on seven stages (SoC scales): A - Unconcerned, B - Informational, C - Personal, D - Manage­ment, E - Consequence, F - Collaboration and G - Refocusing.

Applying the SoC questionnaire provides information about the testees’ attitudes and concerns towards IBSE by creating SoC profiles (Hall & Hord, 2011; Bitan-Friedlander et al., 2004).

In order to use a SoC questionnaire for pre-service science teachers, we first have to test our adapted SoC questionnaire (Schneider & Bolte 2011; according to Pant, Vock, Pöhlmann, & Köller, 2008 and Hall & Hord, 2011) and investi­gate the scientific quality of our modified ques­tionnaire version.

Therefore we ask: (1) Does our adapted SoC questionnaire meet the criteria of scientific quality?

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