Abstract
Numerous dimensions of our social and economic lives have undergone unthinkable transformation as a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic. This study was conducted to investigate and determine the lived experiences of junior high school science teachers amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in the context of based learning inquiry. The participants in the study were the ten junior high school science teachers at the chosen schools, five of whom taught in public schools and five of whom taught in private schools. The study's active participants were all seasoned educators with a combined teaching experience ranging from 5 to 30 years in the science premise. Semi-structured interviews were used for the data collection process. The authors consulted literature and sought advice from experts as they created the interview questions. The researchers began by transcribing every interview's audio recording. The interview data was examined using a thematic analysis process, which was aided by the initial coding of the interview transcripts, the identification of preliminary categories, the second round of coding, the refinement of categories, and the identification of emergent themes. Based on the data findings, during the pandemic, teachers claimed they were unable to teach science via inquiry for a variety of other reasons. Teachers claimed that greater preparation time was necessary for creating effective inquiry-based online lessons and traditional learning. They said that not teaching science through inquiry was due to a lack of preparation time and shorter class periods.
