Advanced science students’ understanding on nature of science in Turkey

The proposed study was conducted with academically advanced 15-years-old students who were purposively selected. This age group has importance due to the appropriateness of it for international comparisons, it becomes clearer when taking into consideration the international examinations, e.g., of PISA. At the same time, it is the first time for students to see science branches as separate titles e.g. biology and chemistry. The students were enrolled in “Science high school” which selects students through a nation-wide examination. The school accepts about only 1 % of the students who participate in the examination. The participants included 16 advanced science students (10 male, 6 female). All of them were enrolled in ninth grade.

Instruments

Student selection for this study was conducted through the use of the ‘Motivation toward learning science’ questionnaire (MLSQ) developed by Tuan, Chin and Sheh (2005), the ‘National science examination’ results and ‘Attitude toward science’ scale (ATSS) developed by Geban, Ertepınar, Yılmaz, Atlan and Şahpaz (1994). The questionnaire and scale were applied to 98 Science high school students, to gather reliability and validity evidence on the 9th graders (n=98). The items translated into Turkish for elementary students by Yılmaz and Cavas (2007) were used in this study. Exploratory factor analysis was used with both instruments due to different group of study than original scale development process. The number of factors, items, Cronbach alpha values and explained variances for each instrument can be seen in table 1.

Table 1. Cronbach Alpha values for the scale and questionnaire (n=98)

Instrument	Number of Items	Number of Factors	Names of Factors	Cronbach Alpha		Explained Variance
MLSQ	28	1	Science learning motivation	.97		54.56%
ATSS	15	2	Positive attitudes toward science	.80	.83	65.40%
			Negative attitudes toward science	.73

The example items can be seen in the following sentences. The sentence of “I am sure that I will be successful in exams related to science content” is one of the items in the MLSQ while “I want to learn more about science subjects” is an example for the ATSS.

Student Selection and Data Collection Process

For selection purpose, the instruments were applied to the participants and then science teachers were asked to rank the five most successful students in their classrooms. After all the applications for selection, matching among all data sources (teacher ranking, national examination scores, attitude scores and motivation scores) was provided. The students who had had 20 or more correct answer out of 25 science questions in the ‘National science examination’, 4 or more mean scores on total scores on the ‘Attitude towards science’ scale, and ‘Motivation toward science learning’ questionnaire, and who were included in the science teachers’ ratings (Six science teacher; 2 biology, 2 physics and 2 chemistry), were being determined for further study. Finally, 16 of the participants were selected for the VNOS-C questionnaire, developed by Lederman et al. (2002). The data was qualitatively analysed and categorised according to the guidelines stipulated. The selection process can be seen in the following flow-chart.

Figure 1. Selection process of the advanced science students

Investigation of the national examination scores (20 or more correct answer)

Investigation of motivation and attitude scales (4 or more total mean scores out of 5 in the scales)

Use of six science teachers’ rankings of the most successful five students for their courses

Making matching among all of the four criteria above

Selection of the students who provide all of the criteria (Advanced Science Students)