Investigation of the Change Towards Scientific Attitudes of Students with Out-of-School Learning Experience

Abstract

The research aimed to follow the long term change of an intervention conducted outside of school for the human and environmental unit in science course on scientific attitude. The research was designed according to a single group pre-post-test simple experimental model. The sample consisted of 21 students studying in the 5th grade of a middle school in Turkey. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected. Quantitative data were collected with the Scientific Attitude Inventory (SAI II) developed by Moore and Foy (1997). It was applied four times, in the beginning, at the end of the intervention, in the sixth, and also one and the half-year following. Qualitative data were also collected to explain and verify the quantitative results. A total of 13 students were conducted an open-ended questionnaire. SPSS program was used to analyzing the quantitative data and also qualitative data were subject to content analysis. The results of SAI II revealed a statistically significant change in just at the third subscale. Based on the qualitative results, the change in the scientific attitudes of the students was attributed to the fact that they watched the speeches of scientists on communication tools such as television and the internet during their stay at home due to the Covid-19 epidemic, as a reflection of the learning products of the applied program. The fact that a partial decrease and/or increase in the other subscales pointed to the permanence of science teaching outside of school to some extent.