Students' Understandings of Scientific Inquiry: Europe

• 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 Europe.

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 England (n=103), Finland (n=149), France (n=109), Germany (n=95), Israel (n=92), Spain (n=159), and Sweden (n=126). 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
Overwhelmingly, grade seven students in Europe have naïve views about scientific inquiry. The table below shows which aspects students were most informed and naïve for each country. Researchers in this region agree that the main reason students are naïve about SI is because of the lack of explicit SI instruction in their classrooms.

Author

• Irene Neumann, University Duisburg - Essen