Abstract:

The main objective of science education programs of many countries is to raise scientifically literate individuals. Scientific inquiry and nature of science are essential components of science literacy. Scientific inquiry is often confused with nature of science or handled as if it is the same concept. Scientific inquiry is the process by which scientific knowledge is produced, while nature of science is the characteristics of scientific knowledge that produces at the end of this process. Scientific inquiry is considered in two dimensions as gaining skill and understanding. Dealing with scientific inquiry with the skill dimension alone does not guarantee an understanding of scientific inquiry. To gain an understanding about scientific inquiry is to give students an understanding of the features of the scientific inquiry process. Most of the studies on the nature of scientific inquiry reveal that students, in-service teachers and pre-service teachers have insufficient views about the nature of scientific inquiry. Taking the nature of scientific inquiry as subject content and taught with explicit/reflective approaches with content-based or classical activities as important as applying scientific inquiry in classroom activities. In this context, it is recommended to conduct more studies to develop the nature of scientific inquiry understanding of students, in-service teachers and pre-service teachers.

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