A Study on the Scientific Inquiry Competencies of First-Year Science Major Students at a College of Education: Focusing on the General Chemistry Experiment Course

This study aimed to investigate whether pre-service science major students at a college of education possess the inquiry competencies necessary to conduct a general chemistry laboratory class. For this purpose, a survey of students' experiences in school science, an assessment of knowledge of laboratory equipment, an assessment of science inquiry processes, and an assessment of chemistry experiment design skills were conducted. The results indicated that science education major students had insufficient understanding of the names and uses of chemical experiment tools, and they did not adequately perform the investigation processes required for the intended experiments. Additionally, it was shown that science education major students had inadequate inquiry competencies needed to conduct general chemistry experiments at the university level, such as insufficient chemistry experiment design skills.