An analaysis of 12th grade students' understandings about scientific inquiry

In the 21st century, in which disinformation and global problems play a leading role, the competition in many areas is becoming more and more inevitable with the effect of change and development. As a necessity of the modern world, this competition has made it indispensable to see change as a part of life and adapt to change by spreading all areas of life. Rapid changes in technology and science, affect various fields especially education. For this reason, reforms have been made in science education in order to adapt to scientific and technological changes and developments. The main goal of the reforms is cultivating 'scientific literate' individuals. The "nature of science" and "scientific inquiry" are the basis of scientific literacy. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify the effect of the educational differences of the high schools in Turkey on students understandings about scientific inquiry. For this purpose, understandings of the 12th grade students in 5 different school types (Science, Social Sciences, Anatolian, Imam Hatip and Vocational High School) in Istanbul province about scientific inquiry were investigated. In 2018-2019 academic year, data were gathered from 300 students through the Scientific Inquiry Questionnaire (VASI). Descriptive survey method, which is one of the qualitative research methods, has been used in order to analyse students' understandings of scientific inquiry. Analysis showed that 12th grade students' understandings of scientific inquiry were mostly insufficient. It was also concluded that there were not any differences among students from the different school types regarding their understandings of scientific inquiry. As a result, it was determined that all high school types with different educational philosophies were insufficient in developing the understanding of SI, which is indispensable in culticating scientific literate individuals. Keywords: VASI, scientific literacy, nature of science, scientific inquiry