Students' Understandings of Scientific Inquiry: Australia and New Zealand

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 48
  In Roundtable Session: Understandings of Scientific Inquiry: A Collaborative International Study of Grade 7 Students

Abstract

Introduction and objective
Understanding scientific inquiry (SI) is critical to the development of students’ scientific literacy (Lederman, Lederman & Antik, 2013). However, SI research is scarce. The aim of this study was to identify the understandings of SI in 7th grade students from Australia and New Zealand.

Theoretical framework
Current science education reform documents emphasize the importance of that students develop abilities to do inquiry and have informed views about SI (National Research Council [NRC], 2011). Lederman et al. (2014) describes eight aspects of SI appropriate in the context of K-12 classrooms. Hence, students should develop informed understandings of the following aspects: Scientific investigations begin with a question, There is no single method followed in all investigations, Inquiry procedures are guided by the question, All scientists performing the same procedures may not get the same results, Inquiry procedures can influence results, Research conclusions must be consistent with the data collected, Scientific data is different to scientific evidence, and Explanations are developed from data collected and previous knowledge.

Methods, participants, and data sources
The participants were representative samples of 7th grade students from Australia (n=108) and New Zealand (n=87). The study is a qualitative study and the VASI questionnaire was used to collect data. The questionnaire is a valid and reliable instrument that address eight aspects of SI and it was answered using a pencil/paper format in the corresponding students’ language. Each questionnaire was scored by a local team in each country and they received training provided by the instrument´s authors about scoring and reliability. Each aspect of SI was scored for each student as No answer (NA), Naïve (N), Mixed (M), and Informed (I) according to the students´ responses to in each question. Finally, 20% of the students were interviewed for validity purposes.

Results, Conclusions and Implications
Overall, Australia and New Zealand have generally naive understandings of SI. The Australian 7th grade students had uninformed views of the majority of aspects of scientific inquiry. Most students held naïve or mixed views of six of the eight aspects, with half of the students expressing informed views in only two aspects. For the most informed aspects of SI, 51% of students exhibited informed views on scientific procedures being guided by the question asked, and 52 % for conclusions being consistent with data collected. Further, for the most naïve aspects of SI, 39% showed naïve views for “same procedures and the same results”, and 25% for begins with a question. In general, Australian 7th grade students enter high school with largely uninformed views of the nature of SI.
New Zealand 7th grade students hold naïve views in almost every aspect of SI. Students provided more informed answers in relation to begin with a question (26.4%) and procedures are guided by the question (25.3%). However, the same SI aspects showed 37.9% and 48.3% of naïve answers respectively. This result suggests that students have a limited understanding of the purposeful nature of scientific investigations although this understanding is not always modeled in science classrooms.

Authors

• Selina L. Bartels, Concordia University - Chicago

• Juan Jimenez Pavez, Illinois Institute of Technology