The progression of students’ views about nature of scientific inquiry

ABSTRACT

While helping students develop informed views about nature of scientific inquiry (VNOSI) has been emphasised in science education, little is known regarding students’ current VNOSI at a certain grade level and whether there was evidence of higher attainment of VNOSI in students in higher grades as compared to lower grades? The purpose of this study was to answer these questions. This study was conducted in China, Hebei province, with a medium level of economic, social, and educational development. Data collection consisted of questionnaire survey and structured-interview. Participants were 212 students (82 males, 130 females) at five grade levels and from four types of locations. The results were: (a) No matter which grade levels students were in, most of them had not developed informed VNOSI. (b) According to Fisher exact tests, in six aspects of nature of scientific inquiry (NOSI), students in higher grades had higher attainment as compared to lower grades; and in two aspects of NOSI, students in higher grades did not have higher attainment as compared to lower grades. In order to explain these research results, three possible reasons were explored; For the purpose of promoting the development of students’ VNOSI, three implications were discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Progression
• scientific inquiry
• nature of scientific inquiry

Acknowledgements

This research only focused on the progression of students’ VNOSI. The samples were made by selecting each grade in one region and it would be better to sample across those four locations for each grade. The sampling procedures were inadequate for making generalisations about changes through time along with the problem that non-representativeness introduces for making comparisons.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical statement

This study met the ethics/human subject requirements of my institution (e.g. Hebei Normal University) at the time the data was collected.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Social Science Fund the 14th Five-year Plan General Education Project ‘Construction of a system of assessment indices for scientific literacy of primary and secondary school students: with the purpose of the cultivation of top innovative talents’ [grant number HBA 210153].