16Discussion of definitions makes clear that learning science through inquiry is a complex process
in which knowledge and understanding and skills of collecting and using evidence are linked
together interactively. The skills that are essential to the building of understanding are both
physical and mental skills, concerned with generating evidence and using evidence to test ideas
that may help to explain an event or phenomenon being studied.
At the same time, the use of skills involves knowledge and understanding, not only knowing
how to generate, collect and interpret data but also understanding why it is important to work
scientifically. Further, there is an affective element to the process, influencing willingness to
engage in the various actions involved in pursuing an inquiry and to take notice of results which
may require a change in pre-existing ideas. All this, too, is embedded in a cultural context which
can promote or inhibit the development of understanding through inquiry.
Acknowledgement of this interdependence of knowledge and skills has led to the suggestion
that inquiry is best specified in terms of practices, complex sets of actions that lead to
experiencing and understanding science as ‘a body of knowledge rooted in evidence’.
Sumber: Harlen, 2013, p.12-13