Students' Understandings of Scientific Inquiry: Asia

• 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 Asia.

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 Asia in two four different regions. China in three sites: China/Beijing (n=166), China/Shanghai (n=106), and China/Zhejiang (n=106) and Taiwan (n=167). 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
The main results related with most informed and most naïve views of each aspect of SI are shown in table 3.
Many possible factors can explain the results from China. First, SI is not sufficiently used in science classrooms and most students learn science through lectures instead of SI activities and it is not until 2001 that the reform of basic education started in China and SI began to be promoted. Second, science teachers have different understanding of SI and this contributes student’s misunderstanding of science inquiry. Third, paper-pen examination is still a very important way to evaluate students’ achievement in science learning. On the other hand, Taiwanese student views largely reflect the image presented by school science, which may be present in the translation of specific terms such as experiment, data and evidence, natural science versus Nature & science, and the scientific method. In Taiwan, science textbooks are shaped by national science curriculum guidelines, which is now under reform that scientific inquiry will be much emphasized. The assessment results of this study can serve as a baseline for comparisons when the new curriculum guidelines implement.
Country/Region Most informed aspects Most naïve aspects

Author

• Liu Cheng