This study compared the innovative characteristics of science teachers who participated in the First Student Science Inquiry Olympic and those of science teachers who did not participate in the event. The subjects were science teachers in three groups...
This study compared the innovative characteristics of science teachers who participated in the First Student Science Inquiry Olympic and those of science teachers who did not participate in the event. The subjects were science teachers in three groups: (1) the active participants in the Inquiry Olympic who supervised the students contestants, (2) the observers of the Inquiry Olympic who came to see the event, and (3) the ordinary teachers who did not come to the Inquiry Olympic and were sampled through stratified cluster sampling. The study instrument was a questionnaire; all the subjects received the survey questionnaire by mail. The return rate was 45%. In general, the Inquiry Olympic participants(both the student supervisors and the observers) demonstrated different characteristics from the nonparticipants in four categories. Firstly, the Inquiry Olympic participants showed higher level of self actualization, for example, interest in science education, higher inner motivation, stronger desire to innovate than did the nonparticipants. Secondly, the participants demonstrated more involvement in professional activities and greater degree of upward social mobility than the nonparticipants. Thirdly, the participants had communication behaviors different from nonparticipants, e. g., greater leadership of public opinions, more experience of contact with the change agent, greater tendency to regard their school society as modern, Lastly, the participants had higher social status than the nonparticipants. Implications and suggestions are made for the utilization of the innovation-oriented science teachers to implement of innovations in the future.