An investigation of science teachers' and students' knowledge    and abilities about preparing science projects:

SİNAN ESLEK

An investigation of science teachers' and students' knowledge and abilities about preparing science projects: "This i̇s My Work" project study

Thesis Type: Postgraduate

Institution Of The Thesis: Dokuz Eylül University, Eğitim Bilimleri Enstitüsü, İlköğretim Ana Bilim Dalı, Turkey

Approval Date: 2015

Thesis Language: Turkish

Student: SİNAN ESLEK

Supervisor: MEHMET ŞAHİN

Open Archive Collection: AVESIS Open Access Collection

Abstract:

In this study it is aimed to research the knowledge and skills of science teachers in project preparation and to analyse self-efficacy of those teachers taking place in regional final exhibition, attitudes of students towards science lesson and their motivations for learning science, as well. Within the scope of this study, 260 physics projects in science and mathematics work called "this is my work", organised by Ministry of National Education and TÜBİTAK, have been examined by grading with "assessment rubric" developed by the researcher. The projects to be examined were confined to the ones that participated in regional final exhibition between 2005 and 2014. Besides, in the regional final exhibition held in İzmir in 2014-2015, teachers' faith in science teaching with their projects and students' motivations and attitudes towards science learning was analysed within the framework of this study. Finally, semi-structured interviews were carried out with volunteer teachers and students having participated in regional final exhibition. In this research, "case study" was used among descriptive research models. It was examined as to whether there is a significant difference between the projects in terms of regional disparities, study team and gender. As a result of the study, it was clearly understood that there is a significant difference between the points that regionally prepared projects got from "assessment rubric". Moreover, according to "the scale of self- efficacy" faith in science teaching" it was seen that male teachers got higher points than female ones and public school teachers than private school teacher. According to "the scale of science learning motivation" of the students having participated in İzmir regional final exhibition in 2015, female students got higher points than male students, private school students than public school students. Considering their points of "the scale of science lesson attitude", public school students got higher points than private school students, male students than female ones and sixth-grade students than other levels, respectively. Furthermore, there was no significant difference between their points from "the scale of science lesson attitude" and "the scale of science learning motivation" in terms of gender, class level and school type. On the other hand, self- efficacy points of the teachers and their points they got from attitudes and motivations scales of their students are quite close to the maximum point. In this respect, within this project it is thought that the teachers' self- efficacy in science teaching and the students' attitudes and motivations study are high. Considering the findings attained from the study, it is recommended that project preparation lessons should be scheduled in teacher training programs, teacher should be provided with long-term in-service training programs in terms of scientific steps of project preparation and students should be trained accordingly.