Views of Scientific Inquiry, Primary School Version (VOSI-P)
The VOSI questionnaire elicits details of learners ideas of what scientists do in the production of valid scientific knowledge. Understanding about scientific inquiry is an integral component of scientific literacy, along with Nature of Science (NOS). The VOSI is useful alone, or in combination with the VNOS to gain in-depth insights into respondents epistemological views of science. The VOSI targets aspects unique from, but complementary to, the VNOS instrument.
Average Review: 
(3.0)
by anonymous,
1st grade teacher, Sunnyside,
The VOSI is a great assessment for teachers and researchers who want to understand a learner’s views of the nature of scientific inquiry in nine general aspects: questions guide inquiry, multiple methods, multiple purposes, justification for knowledge claims, recognition of anomalous data, differences between data and evidence, and community of practice. Each question is tied to one or more of the aspects of scientific inquiry and a profile of a student’s conceptions can be developed. It can be used as a pre and post assessment to study the effectiveness of an intervention. Also a teacher can learn how their students’ conceptual understanding of inquiry has changed after they have gone through a scientific inquiry process. Although this questionnaire is geared towards primary students, it was first developed to understand 9th graders views of scientific inquiry. The VOSI instrument has been developed for elementary, middle, and high school; college, pre-service and in-service teachers, and even scientists. As a primary school teacher my main concern would be the amount of time that it would take to administer this to whole class of students, though the information would be highly valuable.
