What Do Pre-service Science Teachers Views about the Nature of Scientific Inquiry?

Abstract

The nature of scientific inquiry is a concept associated with the nature of science and is an important product of inquiry-based teaching. Inquiry-based teaching is an important method proposed in science education all over the world. The aim of this study is to determine the pre-service science teacher’s views about nature of scientific inquiry. As a data collection tool, The Views about Scientific Inquiry (VASI) questionnaire which developed by Lederman et al. (2014) was used. The questionnaire was translated in to Turkish by the researchers, and experts were assisted by their opinions and arrangements. The pilot data of the study were obtained with the participation of 56 pre-service teachers in the mathematics teacher program and 252 pre-service science teachers participate to get the main data. In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 pre-service teachers. The results of the data variety are used to confirm the analysis of each other. In the analysis of the data, the participant s views are coded as uncategorized, naive, mixed, and informed. The results are presented as frequency and percentage. The data were evaluated by comparing with the pre-service teachers grade levels.\xa0 It was determined that the views of pre-service teachers about nature of scientific inquiry were not sufficient, but they were informed in terms of some aspects.