Framing and assessing scientific inquiry practices

Abstract

In this chapter, we argue that the focus on STEM as an interdisciplinary construct has placed greater emphasis on the contextual applications of science and mathematics practices. For science, this has resulted in a need to more clearly articulate the nature of scientific epistemic practice, including supporting and assessing scientific inquiry skills. We describe a project that involved the development and trialing of secondary level practical inquiry activities representing contemporary STEM practices and ideas. Teachers and students engaging with these activities were introduced to an inquiry scaffold tool that articulated key features of scientific practices and made explicit how to develop and refine practical work to focus on specific skills. We argue, from this experience with secondary science teachers, the need to develop strategies to focus on these specific practices and the need to develop compatible assessment approaches. As examples of how these skills might be assessed in practice, we draw on a separate project in which we refined a set of assessment tasks that situated inquiry skills within engaging contexts and procedures for teachers to make judgments about student performance levels. We outline our experiences of working with teachers with examples of tasks and rubric development.