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Asia-Pacific Forum
on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 15, Issue 1, Article (Jun., 2014) |
This quantitative study was carried out as a survey, which possesses three basic characteristics: (1) the collection of data (2) from a sample (3) by asking questions, in order to describe its aspects (Fraenkel & Wallen, 2006).
The study population consisted of 158 elementary school teachers from villages (N=25), towns (N=39), districts (N=25) and the city center (N=69) of a province located in the Aegean Region of Turkey. Distribution of the participants regarding their gender, seniority and working place is presented in Table 1.
Table 1. Distribution of participants regarding their gender, seniority and working place
Variables
N
%
Gender
Male
88
56
Female
70
44
Total
158
100
Seniority
0-5 years
20
12
6-10 years
31
20
11-15 years
31
20
16-20 years
40
25
21 and more years
36
23
Total
158
100
Working place
Village
25
16
Town
39
25
District
25
16
City center
69
43
Total
158
100
Science Process Skills Test for Teachers (SPSTFT): SPSTFT arranged by Aydoğdu (2006) was used as the data collection instrument. SPSTFT consists of two chapters which comprised 7 scenarios and 9 questions (multiple choice questions) with 0.70 reliability. In these chapters, answers were explained with reasons. The questions were developed by Enger & Yager (1998) and adapted into Turkish by Aydoğdu (2006). The scenarios were developed by Aydoğdu (2006) through investigating other studies consisting case scenarios (Anonymous, 2006; Dana, 2001; Enger & Yager, 1998; Ergin et al., 2005). In addition, Aydoğdu (2006) emphasized that these seven scenarios were sent to two outside academics, who are expert in science teaching. Aydoğdu (2006) stated that final revisions were made and used in the SPSTFT after he received the outside academics’ comments regarding whether the scenarios include and assess the SPS of teachers.
The SPS measured with SPSTFT and maximum scores to be taken from these skills are presented in Table 2.
Table 2. The SPS measured with SPSTFT and maximum scores to be taken from these skills
Questions
Contents of multiple choice questions
Maximum scores to be taken from SPSTFT
1
Observing
2
2
Classifying
2
3
Inferring
2
4
Identifying and controlling variables
2
5
Interpreting data
2
6
Measuring
2
7
Formulating hypotheses
2
8
Experimenting
2
9
Experimenting
2
Total
18
Scenario
10
Observing
4
11
Experimenting
4
12
Formulating hypotheses and Identifying variables
4
13
Formulating hypotheses and Identifying variables
4
14
Classifying
4
15
Measuring
4
16
Experimenting
4
Total
28
Each participant earns 1 point if they mark the correct multiple-choice answer and another 1 point if she/he justifies his or her answer. Totally, each participant can earn 2 points from the multiple-choice test at maximum. Scenarios are twofold: short-response and open-ended. The short-response scenarios have four sub-categories and each of these sub-categories scored as 1 point. In other words, a participant can earn 4 points from a short-response scenario at maximum. Correspondingly, open-ended scenarios, one of which is given above, are scored as 4 points. So, the maximum total score of this test is 46. As seen in Table 2, the SPS measured by SPSTFT are doing observation (1 multiple choice item and 1 scenario), classification (1 multiple choice item), inferring (1 multiple choice item), controlling variables (1 multiple choice item, 2 scenarios), interpreting data (1 multiple choice item), measuring (1 multiple choice item), hypothesizing (1 multiple choice item) and fair testing (2 multiple choice items and 1 scenario). As seen in Table 3, skills measured with SPSTFT are analyzed individually as basic and integrated skills.
Table 3. Distribution of questions in SPSTFT according to basic and integrated skills and maximum scores
SPS
Question number
Question type
The score for each question
Maximum Score depending on the question number
Basic SPS
Observing
1
Justified multiple choice test
2
2
1
Scenario
4
4
Classifying
1
Justified multiple choice test
2
2
1
Scenario
4
4
Measuring
3
Justified multiple choice test
2
6
Inferring
1
Justified multiple choice test
2
2
Total
8
20
Integrated SPS
Formulating hypotheses
1
Justified multiple choice test
2
2
2
Scenario
1
2
Identifying and controlling variables
1
Justified multiple choice test
2
2
2
Scenario
3
6
Experimenting
2
Justified multiple choice test
2
4
2
Scenario
4
8
Interpreting data
1
Justified multiple choice test
2
2
Total
9
26
Overall Total
16
46
As seen in Table 3, the basic skills of SPSTFT are “observing”, “classifying”, “measuring” and “inferring” and the integrated skills of SPSTFT are “formulating hypotheses”, “identifying and controlling variables”, “experimenting” and “interpreting data”.
Analysis of the data obtained from the SPSTFT was conducted in two stages. In the first stage, SPSTFT were evaluated by two researchers individually. This analysis was conducted to obtain quantity data via open-ended scenario questions in the test. In order to ensure reliability, the tests were analyzed individually by two researchers during the SPSTFT evaluation. First, researchers analyzed 25 participants' tests individually. The qualitative data gathered from the scenarios were analyzed by two researchers and the consistency between the researchers was found to be 0.87. A sample scenario (and its ratings by the two authors) from the SPSTFT is given in Table 4. Finally, all the data were analyzed by two researchers individually and the coefficient of agreement was calculated as 0.93, which is quite reliable (Miles & Huberman, 1994).
Table 4. A sample scenario (and its ratings by the two authors) from the SPSTFT
Scenario: Engin and Hasan wonder whether heat transfer rates of two different metals are same or not. For this purpose, they took copper and aluminum wires of different thicknesses but equal length and heated the two wires at the same point with equal amount of candle wax. Do you think that Engin and Hasan would reach a correct conclusion through this experiment? If not, how would you design an alternative experiment to serve their purpose?
Sample Response of a teacher to the scenario and its ratings by the two experts.
Statement of Elementary school teacher
Initial Differences
Consensus Result
Field expert-1
Field expert -2
Field expert -1
Field expert -2
They would not reach a correct conclusion, because in order to do a controlled experiment one should change only one independent variable. If more than one independent variables are changed, then it would not be a controlled experiment. Same thing is happening in this scenario, because both the length and kind of the wires are different. Instead, in this experiment, only the kind of the metals has to be changed and other variables have to be kept the same.
Correct
Partially correct
Correct
Correct
In the second stage, the distribution of SPSTFT scores in each group was tested with normality tests. As distribution was found to be normal, the t-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were decided to be used. The t-test was used to detect whether SPSTFT scores of elementary school teachers differ by gender and one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to detect whether these scores differ by seniority and their students’ class level. In addition, ANCOVA test was used to detect whether the SPS of elementary school teachers differ by working place or not.
