Learning from Inquiry-Based Laboratories in Nonmajor Biology: An Interpretive Study of the Relationships among Inquiry Experience, Epistemologies, and Conceptual Growth

Abstract: The use of inquiry-based laboratory in college science classes is on the rise. This studyinvestigated how five nonmajor biology students learned from an inquiry-based laboratory experience.Using interpretive data analysis, the five students’ conceptual ecologies, learning beliefs, and scienceepistemologies were explored. Findings indicated that students with constructivist learning beliefs tendedto add more meaningful conceptual understandings during inquiry labs than students with positivistlearning beliefs. All students improved their understanding of experiment in biology. Implications for theteaching of biology labs are discussed. 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 40: 986–1024, 2003 Interest in using inquiry-based teaching strategies has increased in recent years as scienceteachers have become more critical about the efficacy of cookbook-type laboratory activities andindeedthepurposes,practices,andlearningoutcomesoflaboratoryingeneral(Wellington,1998).Itisgraduallybeingrecognizedthatwhereascookbooklabscanteachsomelaboratorytechniquesandskills(Hart,Mulhall,Berry,Loughran,&Gunstone,2000)orserveasvisualaidsforconceptsalready studied (Millar, 1998), they are largely ineffective as a tool for teaching science concepts.Asstatedbyoneteacher-researcher,‘‘Inthesamewayasanyscientist,studentswillseewhattheirprior theories lead them to expect. More significantly, they will not make the meaning that we asteachers expect them to make of experimental evidence until they have already grasped thetheoretical framework that allows them to ‘see’ the evidence’’ (Hart et al., 2000, p. 659).Therefore, cookbook laboratories may work well as illustrations of concepts already studied andunderstood but it is unlikely they will lead to new conceptual learning.Many definitions ofinquiry-based labs and inquiry pedagogical models may be adapted to fitthe local context (Keys & Bryan, 2000). The authors of this report consider inquiry to be anycombination of the following activities described as inquiry by the National Science EducationStandards (National Research Council, 1996): observing objects and events, posing questions,