Students' opinions regarding to the inquiry-based learning approach

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of the inquiry-based learning approach on the activities held in science and technology course, students' scientific process skills, their interests in science and technology course, and their opinions about science and scientists. For this purpose, the data were collected through audiotaped semi-structured interviews. The data of this study were analyzed through descriptive analysis techniques by using NVivo2 Qualitative Data Analysis Program. In this study, the criterion sampling method which was one of the purposive sampling methods was used. Consequently, the inquiry-based learning activities were seen to contribute to the development of students' scientific process skills and the acquisition of science- technology-society-environment gaining. Furthermore, students' opinions about science and technology course, science, and scientists had changed in positive way. Purpose and significance: The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of the inquiry-based learning approach on the activities held in science and technology course, students' scientific process skills, their interests in science and technology course, and their opinions about science and scientists. The study was conducted with the students of the class 5/A of -ehit Ali Gaffar Primary School which is located in the center of EskiDehir city in the Fall term of 2006-2007 academic year. In the class chosen, the applications related to the inquiry-based learning were carried out for the whole class and lasted for 12 weeks. Methods: In this study, one of the purposive sampling methods, criterion sampling method was used. Due to the fact that the class was crowded, six focus students were determined according to their scores of attitude scale (scale for attitudes towards science and technology course). Among the six students, two of them got high scores, two of them got average scores and two of them got low scores from the attitude scale in comparison to the class average. In the selection of the focus students, the success and participation in science and technology course were attentively taken into consideration by consulting with the teacher in order to be in line with the attitude scale results. The semi-structured interviews conducted in the study were carried out only with the focus students before the actions started and the application finished completely. The interviews were audiotaped. The data of this study were analyzed through descriptive analysis techniques by using NVivo2 (Qualitative Data Analysis Program). For the reliability of the study, using Miles and Huberman's (1994) formula and it was calculated as % 91,25 for the first interviews and % 93,75 for the last interviews. Results: Consequently, it was found that, the inquiry-based learning activities enhanced the students' scientific process skills and contributed to the acquisition of science-technology-society-environment gaining. Moreover, students' opinions about science and technology course, science, and the scientists had changed in a positive way. They thought that the science and technology course was very enjoyable with inquiry-based activities and they had great fun while doing laboratory activities. Discussion and Conclusions: Due to the fact that the inquiry-based learning approach contributes to the development of students' scientific process skills, the plans of activity, and the application samples which cover learning areas regarding both the subject-matter and skills, understanding, attitude and values may be prepared within the scope of 5 th grade science and technology course.