The Effect of Guided-Inquiry Instruction on 6th Grade Turkish Students' Achievement, Science Process Skills, and Attitudes Toward Science

2014-01-02
Koksal, Ela Ayse
Berberoglu, Giray
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of guided-inquiry approach in science classes over existing science and technology curriculum in developing content-based science achievement, science process skills, and attitude toward science of grade level 6 students in Turkey. Non-equivalent control group quasi-experimental design was used to investigate the treatment effect. There were 162 students in the experimental group and 142 students in the control group. Both the experimental and control group students took the Achievement Test in Reproduction, Development, and Growth in Living Things (RDGLT), Science Process Skills Test, and Attitudes Toward Science Questionnaire, as pre-test and post-test. Repeated analysis of variance design was used in analyzing the data. Both the experimental and control group students were taught in RDGLT units for 22 class hours. The results indicated the positive effect of guided-inquiry approach on the Turkish students' cognitive as well as affective characteristics. The guided inquiry enhanced the experimental group students' understandings of the science concepts as well as the inquiry skills more than the control group students. Similarly, the experimental group students improved their attitudes toward science more than the control group students as a result of treatment. The guided inquiry seems a transition between traditional teaching method and student-centred activities in the Turkish schools.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENCE EDUCATION

Suggestions

The effect of problem based learning instruction on 7th grade students’ science achievement, attitude toward science and scientific process skills
Serin, Gökhan; Eryılmaz, Ali; Department of Secondary Science and Mathematics Education (2009)
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of instruction based on problem-based learning (PBL) on 7th grade students’ science achievement, attitude toward science course and scientific process skills. The study was conducted in May 2007 with 141 students and four science teachers from four middle schools in Gölbası district of Ankara. A total of eight classes were participated in the study. Four of them were assigned randomly to control group and four of them were assigned randomly to experimen...
The Effect of history of science instruction on elementary students' scientific literacy
Cansız, Mustafa; Sungur Vural, Semra; Öztekin, Ceren; Department of Elementary Education (2014)
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of history of science instruction on elementary students' scientific literacy. Specifically, the effectiveness of history of science instruction over curriculum-oriented instruction was examined in terms of four central components of scientific literacy, which are science process skills, understanding of human circulatory system concepts, attitudes toward science, and nature of science views. A total of 95 sixth-grade students from four classes p...
An analysis of efficacy beliefs, epistemological beliefs and attitudes towards science in preservice elementary science teachers and secondary science teachers
Sünger, Mustafa; Yılmaz Tüzün, Özgül; Department of Secondary Science and Mathematics Education (2007)
The purpose of the study was to analyze preservice science teachers at elementary science teaching and secondary science teaching with respect to their self efficacy beliefs, epistemological beliefs, and attitudes towards science teaching. Preservice elementary science teachers and preservice secondary science teachers who enrolled in Middle East Technical University in Ankara were the sample of this study. Participants of this study were third grade of preservice elementary science teachers and preservice ...
The effect of explicit embedded reflective instruction on nature of science understandings, scientific literacy levels and achievement on cell unit
Köksal, Mustafa Serdar; Geban, Ömer; Department of Secondary Science and Mathematics Education (2010)
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of explicit-embedded-reflective (EER) instruction on nature of science (NOS) understandings, scientific literacy levels and cell content knowledge of the ninth grade advanced science students. This study has been conducted with 71 students by using non-equivalent quasi-experimental design. In the treatment groups, the EER teaching has been conducted while NOS instruction in the comparison group for the same time interval has been done by lecture,...
The pedagogy of argumentation in science education: science teachers' instructional practices
Yilmaz, Yasemin Ozdem; Çakıroğlu, Jale; ERTEPINAR, HAMİDE; ERDURAN, Sibel (Informa UK Limited, 2017-01-01)
Argumentation has been a prominent concern in science education research and a common goal in science curriculum in many countries over the past decade. With reference to this goal, policy documents burden responsibilities on science teachers, such as involving students in dialogues and being guides in students' spoken or written argumentation. Consequently, teachers' pedagogical practices regarding argumentation gain importance due to their impact on how they incorporate this practice into their classrooms...
Citation Formats
E. A. Koksal and G. Berberoglu, “The Effect of Guided-Inquiry Instruction on 6th Grade Turkish Students’ Achievement, Science Process Skills, and Attitudes Toward Science,” INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENCE EDUCATION, pp. 66–78, 2014, Accessed: 00, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://hdl.handle.net/11511/64989.