Understandings of scientific inquiry: an international collaborative investigation of seventh grade students

Abstract

Although understandings of scientific inquiry (as opposed to conducting inquiry) is included in science education reform documents around the world, little is known about what students have learned about inquiry during their primary school years. This is partially due to the lack of any assessment instrument to measure understandings about scientific inquiry. However, a valid and reliable assessment has recently been developed and published, Views About Scientific Inquiry (VASI) (Lederman J. et. al., 2014). The purpose of this large scale (i.e., 19 countries spanning six continents and including 2,960 students) international project was to get the first baseline data on what grade students have learned. The participating countries were: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Egypt, England, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, New Zealand, Nigeria, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, United States, Taiwan, and Turkey. In many countries, science is not formally taught until middle school, which is the rationale for choosing seventh grade students for this investigation. This baseline data will simultaneously provide information on what, if anything, students learn about inquiry in primary school, as well as their beginning knowledge as they enter secondary school.