Examination of Expection and Anxiety States in the Science Laboratory in Science Education

Elvan Ince Aka

doi:10.22158/wjer.v4n4p537

Abstract

In this research, it is aimed to study the expectations and anxiety states of students, studying Science Education, during the course of science education laboratory practices. Screening model was used in this research. The research was carried out with the participation of 83 students, who took the course of Science Education Laboratory Practice and who were studying in 3rd Grade (3 branches) in the Department of Science Education, Department of Mathematics and Sciences, Faculty of Education, public university in the spring semester of 2016-2017 academic year. We used the following open-ended research question; “What are your expectations from the course of Science education laboratory practices as a data collection tool?”, and we also used “Science Laboratory Anxiety Scale” which was developed by U?akl? and Akp?nar (2015). Descriptive analysis technique was used during the analysis of qualitative data. SPSS 18.0 package statistics program was used during the analysis of quantitative data. In line with the research results, it is observed that the expectations and anxieties of students related with science laboratory are focused mostly on the level of success.

Highlights

Physical sciences come to the forefront by allowing the students to ask questions, to develop the skill to make researches, to hypothesise and to interpret the obtained results while laying emphasis on tests, observations and explorations (Balagun & Odubunni, 1991)
We used the following open-ended research question; “What are your expectations from the course of Science education laboratory practices as a data collection tool?”, and we used “Science Laboratory Anxiety Scale” which was developed by Uşaklı and Akpınar (2015)
When we assess the issue from this point of view, by revealing the expectations and anxiety states of students interms of laboratory course, it is aimed in this research to make suggestions that may allow processing of such emotions more effectively and efficiently for meeting the expectations of students and decreasing their anxieties in the laboratory courses that shall be studied in the future

Summary

Introduction

Physical sciences come to the forefront by allowing the students to ask questions, to develop the skill to make researches, to hypothesise and to interpret the obtained results while laying emphasis on tests, observations and explorations (Balagun & Odubunni, 1991). According to the data obtained as a result of several researches, it is observed that laboratory events or test practices are not included at a sufficient level, there are laboratories in primary and secondary education schools, and that even the tests that may be performed by using materials, which are used in daily life, are not performed (Görgülü et al, 2006; Güneş et al, 2013) In this context, it may be considered that the anxieties and expectations that the students experience throughout the learning process may be the cause of current problem. When we assess the issue from this point of view, by revealing the expectations and anxiety states of students interms of laboratory course, it is aimed in this research to make suggestions that may allow processing of such emotions more effectively and efficiently for meeting the expectations of students and decreasing their anxieties in the laboratory courses that shall be studied in the future

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion