Validation of the inquiry skills test - Are inquiry skills related to science motivation and understanding of a science text?

Goal of this study was to provide evidence for the validity of the Inquiry Skills Test (IST; Horstink, 2005). The IST and the Dutch Science Motivation Questionnaire (DSMQ; Wilhelm, Stellmacher, Eysink, ten Klooster, submitted) were given to a sample of 44 eleventh-graders (pre-university education) and understanding of a science text was tested. Reliability of the instruments was investigated and compared to earlier studies on the IST. Correlation analysis was performed. The IST had, except for two subtests, a high reliability. The IST scores correlated with the understanding of the science text. This supports that the IST does measure science skills. No correlation was found between IST and DSMQ scores. However, science motivation and text understanding correlated. A regression analysis showed that the IST scores, contrary to the DSMQ scores, significantly predicted the scores on the text understanding assignment. This provides additional evidence for the validity of the IST. Summarized the findings support the validity of the interpretation of the IST scores. Further studies should be performed with a sample that has no science experience to make the results more generalizable. Also a factor analysis is recommended to test whether all items measure the skills they are expected to measure.