Inquiry competences of junior and senior class biology students

Individual Abstract
INQUIRY COMPETENCES OF JUNIOR AND SENIOR CLASS BIOLOGY STUDENTS

Iris Schiffl [Austria]1

University of Salzburg, School of Education1

Inquiry, as a fundamental part of science education, can be found in all international science standards. In the development process of Austrian science standards, competency levels based on Austrian science competency models, were developed. The aim of the presented study is to provide data about inquiry competences of 8th, 10th and 12th grade students in Austria, as no data about senior class students‘ inquiry competences (e.g. 10th and 12th grade) exists for German speaking countries so far. Therefore, competency levels defined by Austrian science standards were used to develop questionnaires for inquiry competences. These questionnaires examine levels of inquiry competences based on eight fundamental biological topics (e.g. cells, animals, plants and ecology) and were given to 558 students. Summing up the results, inquiry competences of Austrian students in junior and senior classes are situated on a basic level, with most students reaching level 1 or 2 (out of 4 for all examined inquiry competences (asking research questions, disposing hypotheses, planning an experiment and analyzing data)). Although inquiry competences increase from 8th to 12th grade, the results indicate a lack of inquiry competences, especially concerning the use of basic terminology of inquiry and the connection between inquiry and biological knowledge – even for 12th grade students.