Positive or negative? The effects of scientific inquiry on science achievement via attitudes toward science

Although scientific inquiry has been advocated for more than six decades, inconsistent findings concerning its effects on science achievement have been revealed in recent analyses of large-scale international assessment data. This has evoked considerable concern given the significant role that inquiry plays in science education. To unpack the complex influence of inquiry on science achievement, this study used the PISA 2015 data from 12 developed Western or East Asian countries/economies at the top of the rankings to (i) examine the internal structure embedded in the items about inquiry in the PISA survey and (ii) further adopted the validated structure to further explore the impacts of inquiry on students' science achievement and the mediation of attitudes towards science. The results indicated that despite the negative direct and indirect effects that the investigation aspect of inquiry had on science achievement, the explanation aspect of inquiry had both direct positive impacts on science achievement and indirect positive impacts mediated by the enjoyment of science and self-efficacy. When all of the effects of both the investigation and explanation aspects were integrated, the overall influence of inquiry on students' science achievement was found to be positive. The positive overall effects were consistent across both Western and East Asian contexts. This study highlights the necessity of (i) considering different facets of inquiry and different types of effects when investigating the impacts of inquiry on science achievement and (ii) achieving a better balance between the investigation and explanation processes when implementing inquiry in school classrooms. Copyright © 2023 World Education Research Association.