Helping students develop informed views about scientific inquiry (SI) has been and continues to be a goal of K‐12 science education, as evidenced in various reform documents. Nevertheless, research focusing on understandings of SI has taken a perceptible backseat to that which focuses on the “doing” of inquiry. We contend that this is partially a function of the typical conflation of scientific inquiry with nature of science (NOS), and is also attributable to the lack of a readily accessible instrument to provide a meaningful assessment of learners' views of SI. This article (a) outlines the framework of scientific inquiry that undergirds the Views About Scientific Inquiry (VASI) questionnaire; (b) describes the development of the VASI, in part derived from the Views of Scientific Inquiry (VOSI) questionnaire; (c) presents evidence for the validity and reliability of the VASI; (d) discusses the use of the VASI and associated interviews to elucidate views of the specific aspects of SI that it attempts to assess; and (e) discusses the utility of the resulting rich‐descriptive views of SI that the VASI provides for informing both further research efforts and classroom practice. The trend in recent reform documents, unfortunately, ignores much of the research on NOS and SI and implicitly presumes that the “doing” of inquiry is sufficient for developing understandings of SI. The VASI serves as a tool in further discrediting this contention and provides both the classroom teacher and the researcher a more powerful means for assessing learners' conceptions about essential aspects of SI, consonant with the vision set forth in the recently released Next Generation Science Standards (Achieve, Inc., 2013). © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 51: 65–83, 2014

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One third of all patients who survive AAA repair experience significant dilatation of their proximal aortic cuff over time. Proximal dilatation is rare but not absent in patients who have smaller initial aortic cuff diameters. This dilatation rarely causes problems after conventional suture fixation, but the long-term implications of cuff dilatation after endoluminal repair are unclear. Our findings suggest that endovascular aortic prostheses that have the ability to continue to self-expand many years after implantation may be required and that endovascular prostheses may not be the best option for patients who have a long life expectancy or for those who have preoperative proximal cuffs greater than 27 mm.

Research on nature of science (NOS) and scientific inquiry (SI) has indicated that a teacher's knowledge of each, however well developed, is not sufficient to ensure that these conceptions necessarily manifest themselves in classroom practice (Lederman & Druger, 1985;Lederman, 2007). In light of considerable research that has examined teachers' subject matter knowledge structures and their classroom practices (e.g., Gess-Newsome & Lederman, 1993, what was conspicuously absent was an assessment of teachers' knowledge structures for NOS and SI. The current investigation inferred the classroom practice knowledge structures for NOS and SI for four physics teachers. These results were then compared to responses communicated through the Knowledge Structures for NOS and SI (KS4NS) questionnaire and subsequent interview. The degree of congruence between the two knowledge structures was gauged at the level of included concepts, connections between concepts, and for other organizational or thematic elements. The results indicated limited congruence between teachers' knowledge structures for NOS and SI and those espoused in their classroom practice. Most notable was the dearth of connections evidenced between constituent aspects in the latter. The necessity of having teacher candidates explicitly reflect on the structure of the subject matter they are learning for teaching is reiterated through the findings of the current study. The utility of the KS4NS as tool to foster such reflections specifically regarding conceptualization of NOS and SI independent of, or in conjunction with, traditional subject matter also warrants further investigation, particularly in light of the recently released Next Generation Science Standards and their highly integrative conception of science. # 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach Keywords: nature of science; scientific inquiry; pedagogical content knowledge; knowledge structures Shulman (1986Shulman ( , 1987 in his groundbreaking 1985 address to AERA, and subsequent related writings centering on pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), hypothesized that the nature of teachers' subject matter structures (i.e., how they conceptualize the content they are charged with teaching) should both impact the manner in which content is translated during instruction and facilitate future subject matter learning. As such, he posited, it is not simply the "amount" of subject matter knowledge a teacher possesses but how it is structured that should serve to better facilitate its translation into practice.Research has indicated that experts' structuring of their subject matter differs from that of novices in that it is more elaborate and contains more cross-linking, interconnections, and overarching thematic elements (e.g

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Research has indicated that experts' subject matter knowledge structures (SMKSs) differ from those of novices in that they contain more cross‐linking, interconnections, and overarching thematic elements, characteristics that are in accordance with those espoused in current reform documents. Unfortunately, teachers' SMKSs are not necessarily translated into classroom practice, for either novice or more experienced classroom teachers. A means to facilitate the translation of teachers' SMKSs into practice would ensure that those desired characteristics of experts' subject matter knowledge manifest themselves in teachers' classroom practice. Four experienced physics teachers diagrammed their SMKSs, which were then compared to those inferred from their classroom practice. Prior to instruction, two teachers, as part of the explicit‐reflective treatment, were asked to reflect at multiple time points on congruence between their SMKSs and classroom practice focusing on the presence of essential concepts, interconnections, and overarching thematic elements. No discernible difference was apparent between control and treatment groups, as teachers from both groups showed a high‐degree of congruence between inferred and diagrammed SMKSs. Results further substantiate the challenges in identifying a means for both developing and facilitating the enactment of coherent, connected, and dynamic SMKSs or, in effect, accelerating teachers' pedagogical content knowledge.

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