Understanding students’ practical epistemologies and their influence on learning through inquiry

ABSTRACT: It has long been a goal of science education in the United States that students leave school with a robust understanding of the nature of science. Decades of research show that this does not happen. Inquiry-based instruction is advocated as a means for developing such understanding, although there is scant direct evidence that it does. There is a gap between what is known about students ’ inquiry practices and their epistemological beliefs about science. Studies of students ’ ideas about epistemological aspects of formal science are unlikely to shed any light on how they perceive their own inquiry efforts. Conversely, inquiry-based instruction that does not account for the epistemological beliefs that guide students ’ inquiry stands very little chance of helping students to understand professional science. This paper reviews largely independent lines of research into students ’ beliefs about the nature of science and their practices of inquiry to argue that students ’ inquiry is guided by practical epistemologies that are in need of study. An approach to studying practical epistemologies is proposed that has the potential to produce a better psychological theory of epistemological development, as well as to realize goals of a science education tha