Perceptions of pre-service science teachers in primary education about the steps and actions needed to carry out a school inquiry

In this work we examine the answers of 35 preservice primary teachers in an activity focused on the identification of the different phases of a scientific inquiry and the actions needed to solve it. To do so, we design an example of inquiry describing its solving process in order to explain the difference in the price among three brands of ham. The results show that the performance in the identification of stages is more appropriate than in the identification of actions. While all the phases are identified for at least 16 students, there are actions as data recording which is identified only for one of them. An implication derived from this study is the need to reflect about how scientific knowledge is generated and developed during de preservice primary teacher education.