Reform efforts for science education urge inquiry as a central strategy of science instruction. This study explored to what extent high school teachers performed inquiry-based learning activities and what type of inquiry they implemented in science teaching in Taiwan. A total of 99 high school teachers involved in a science reform curriculum program participated in this survey study. The curriculum program advocated the implementation of student-centered and inquiry-based instruction in high school science classrooms. Three questionnaires were implemented to collect data around teachers__ perceptions of the nature of teaching and learning, teaching confidence around inquiry, and the actual practice of inquiry teaching in their science courses. The data analysis showed that the high school teachers were more inclined to hold constructivist beliefs in teaching and learning while they showed high level of confidence in teaching the inquiry-oriented science curriculum. For the implementation of inquiry teaching, the teachers did not perform a particular type of inquiry, namely confirmation, structured, guided, or open inquiry, in their science teaching. During the inquiry teaching process of problem/question posing, data collection procedure/design, and data analysis/communication, the teachers provided problems and analysis guidance for students to explore and follow, while the students took responsibility on the task of data collection by using the procedures designed by themselves. The influence of teaching beliefs and teaching confidence on science inquiry teaching is discussed.
