Exploring Learners' Understandings of the Nature of Scientific Inquiry (NOSI): The Validation of a Research Instrument.

Commitments to inquiry and to laboratory investigation have become hallmarks of science education around the world. South Africa has also moved towards inquiry learning in secondary school science. This is attested to by its new science curriculum which advocates the promotion of both inquiry learning and teaching. This paper discusses the adaptation and validation of a research instrument, on understanding of the nature of scientific inquiry (NOSI) based on data collected from South African Grade 11 learners. The Learners' Understanding of Science and Scientific Inquiry (LUSSI) instrument blends Likert-type items and related open-ended questions to assess learners' understanding of the nature of scientific inquiry. The combined quantitative and qualitative methods enhance both the sensitivity and confidence with which the variety of learners' NOSI views can be detected. Correlation analysis revealed that five of the six NOSI aspects correlate substantially with the total sum of all the constructs. The results also show that learners demonstrated the most confusions and misunderstandings in the laws versus theories aspect of the NOSI. A substantial number of learners (52%) demonstrated transitional views that were a combination of both naïve and informed understandings in the other five NOSI aspects. Evidence-based insight into the validation of the LUSSI is significant in that it invites further thought about how NOSI views can be measured with larger sample sizes. It also provides insight into the complexity and challenges involved in measuring and interpreting learner NOSI views. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]