A Scientific Inquiry Abilities Test (SIAT) for Senior High School Students

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to develop a reliable and valid Scientific Inquiry Abilities Test (SIAT) for practical and academic uses. Two hundred and thirty 10th, 11th, and 12th grade students in Taiwan provided answers used for item analysis and construct validity testing. The results were as follows: 1. The SIAT contains 27 items including five testlets; 2. The average of difficulty analysis was 0.74 and the average of discrimination analysis was 0.20; 3. The internal consistency was 0.629 and the scorer reliability coefficient was 0.964; 4. There were moderate correlations between all testlet scores and whole test scores (p = 0.000) with values ranging from 0.534 to 0.684; 5. The values for discriminant validity ranged from 0.158 to 0.323; and 6. High-achievement students out-performed their counterparts on the SIAT, and large effect sizes (ESs) were also found for all the testlets.These results indicated that the SIAT possesses high-reliability and construct validity. Finally, the paper addressed implications for future research and science teaching. Keywords: scientific inquiry, Scientific Inquiry Abilities Test (SIAT), validation IntroductionThe main goal of a science curriculum is to develop students' ability to ask relevant questions and enhance their understanding of inquiry, such that they develop their own scientific thought process, rather than just copying the thoughts and ideas of the scientists they study. This has already become the consensus of the international scientific education field (Abd-El-Khalick et al., 2004). Accordingly, the subject of inquiry is of an urgent concern in science education presently. Hinrichsen and Jarrett (1999) had stressed that students needed to construct, design, conduct, analyze, and communicate their understanding, investigations, and findings. They also need to understand abstract ideas as well as rethink concepts, adapt and retry their own hypotheses, and engage in investigations and problem-solving efforts. Kuhn (2007) Koslowski, Marasia, Chelenza, and Dublin (2008) had stressed that in actual scientific inquiry, people sought out explanations for happenings that arose from the covariate. In reality, an explanation becomes increasingly convincing when evidence that connects to that explanation increases. Since inquiry is a way to achieve and understand knowledge about the world, we need a more consistent view for teachers and researchers to follow when exploring related issues. According to the National Research Council (NRC) (1996), basic characteristics of inquiry-based classrooms are:1. Learners are allowed to invest in scientific problems; 2. Learners are given priority to develop and evaluate explanations and answers to scientific problems using evidence; 3. Learners use evidence to form explanations to answer scientific problems; 4. Learners evaluate their explanations based on other explanations reflected by scientific understanding; 5. Learners exchange and defend their explanations.Of the above characteristics, Hung (2010) classified 1 and 2 as elem...

Effect of Inquiry Method on Scientific Inquiry Skills of Elementary School Students

“…Harlen (2014) argued that the development of inquiry skills enable learner to build their understanding around them and also to understand the nature of science and appreciation of the contribution of scientific knowledge to society and how this knowledge is used in technology and engineering. Hsieh et al (2017) suggested that science teachers and educators are agreed that inquiry method is one of the best to produce inquiry skills or abilities in learners to learn more about the world. Duran (2017) suggested that science and technology learning supported with guided activity developed with inquiry base learning approach have significant effects on learner's critically thinking skills in science and technology courses.…”