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

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…