Scientific Inquiry in the Next Generation Science Standards

Abstract

Scientific inquiry has been accepted that it is a heart of learning science, and that states in many standards all over the world including United State of America and Thailand. In 2013, the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) was published and in the new standards does not show the word “inquiry”. This leads to a question that “is inquiry still emphasized in the NGSS?” This article analyzed and compared the National Science Education Standard (1996) with the Next Generation Science Standards (2013). The analysis results could be indicated that even the word “inquiry” is not presented in the NGSS but the inquiry process still emphasize. The word “inquiry learning” has been changed to “Science and Engineering Practices” which is more touchable. The practices would help teachers to design the learning environments that engage students to learn science as inquiry.