This study examined preservice teachers' understanding of the syntactic structures of inquiry; in particular, what it means to give priority to evidence and how to use evidence to construct explanations. Data were collected from student journals, the course syllabus, the assignment description, and weekly lesson plans. The use of content analysis methods resulted in three assertions: (1) the students relied mainly on their sense of sight and not on all senses to make observations; (2) they had difficulties giving priority to the evidence gathered to formulate explanations; and (3) they needed multiple opportunities in class to explicitly discuss and reflect on their understandings. This study has implications for teaching elementary science methods and for teacher educators interested in conducting self-study research. (Contains 1 table.)