Investigation of Competence for Science Learning of Middle School Students According to Various Variables

The aim of this study is to investigate how competence for science learning(CSL) of middle school students at different grade levels change according to various variables. In addition, the study aims to reveal the views of students and science teachers about the teaching of science courses in terms of Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL). The study was conducted with exploratory sequential mixed methods. A total of 805 students at different grade levels and 4 science teachers participated.CSL scale that was developed by Chang et all(2011) and adopted in Turkish by Senler(2014), open-ended questions, and semi-structured interviews were used as data collection tools. Mann-Whitney U Test and Kruskal Wallis, which are nonparametric tests, were used in the analysis. The open-ended questions and semi-structured interviews were analyzed with content analysis. Results showed that CSL scale scores of the students were above average; the difference according to gender was in favor of female students; parent education level was related to CSL; students' CSL, scientific-inquiry and communication competencies with high science achievement were high; it was found that as the grade level increased, scientific-inquiry competencies decreased. It was determined that the views of teachers and students about the teaching of the science course in terms of IBL were parallel to the results of both each other and the quantitative data.