Abstract:
This study aimed to adapt views about scientific inquiry questionnaire in to Turkish,
originally developed by Lederman et al (2014), and to explore preservice teachers’
views about scientific inquiry. The questionnaire was translated into Turkish by three
researchers and the translation of the items from English to Turkish was compared.
The final paper was sent to three experts in the field to get expert opinion. After
making the necessary corrections, 30 teacher candidates were interviewed to look at
the clarity of the questions on the form. The final form was applied to 314 teacher
candidates. Expert opinion supports that the translated items have content validity
in terms of measuring eight of the targeted scientific inquiry components in the
original scale. Data was analyzed by three researchers independently in order to
ensure researcher triangulation. Inter-rater agreement was 95%; however, after
raters had the opportunity to “calibrate” their coding scheme with one another,
consensus was established virtually assuring nearly full agreement. Results of the
investigation showed that preservice teachers generally have transformative views
few of them have naive views about scientific inquiry.
