Views of Nature of Scientific Inquiry of Students in Different High Schools

Abstract

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore different high school students’ views of Nature of Scientific Inquiry (NOSI). Eleventh grade students in Science High School (SHS, 69 students), Teacher High School (THS, 99 students), and Anatolian High School (AHS, 99 students) were participated in the study. Views about Scientific Inquiry (VASI) questionnaire was applied at their classroom and some of them were interviewed just after filling out the questionnaire. Analysis of the data was done by establishing a profile for each student by assigning naïve, mixed, and informed codes for each NOSI aspect. Then, frequency of each code was determined and tabulated. Two researchers’ coding agreement of the questionnaires was 85%. The results of the study revealed that SHS students demonstrated more informed views than other two high schools on three NOSI aspects which were ‘scientific investigations all begin with a question and do not necessarily test a hypothesis’, ‘there is no single set of steps followed in all investigations’, and ‘inquiry procedures are guided by the question asked’. SHS students and THS students were close to each other and had more informed views than AHS students in two NOSI aspect of ‘data are not the same as evidence’ and ‘explanations are derived from data and what is already known’ aspects. On the other hand, AHS students provided less informed view on two aspects (‘same procedures may not get the same results’ and ‘procedures influence results’), but had also least naïve views on both aspects which means that they have more merit to develop these aspects. The NOSI aspect of ‘conclusions must be consistent with data’ was the aspect that most of high school students in each school had informed views. SHS had the more science courses than THS and AHS. Based on the results of this study, it seems that more science courses and more previous science experience help developing more informed NOSI views, but it should be researched more before making a clear conclusion.