INVESTIGATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PRE-SCHOOL TEACHERS' EPISTEMOLOGICAL BELIEFS AND SCIENCE ACTIVITY COMPETENCIES IN TERMS OF SOME VARIABLES

Abstract

The aim of the study is to examine the epistemological beliefs of preschool teachers and their proficiency in science activities in terms of some variables, and also to investigate the relationship between their epistemological beliefs and their proficiency in science activities. The population of the study consists of 213 preschool teachers working in public schools affiliated to the Ministry of National Education in the province of Gaziantep in the 2021-2022 academic year. The "relational screening model", which is one of the quantitative research models, was used in the study. In the thesis study, in addition to the personal information form containing some demographic information, two scales, "Scale for Determining Preschool Teachers' Competence in Science Activities" and "Epistemological Beliefs Scale", were chosen as data collection tools and SPSS 26 package program was used in the analysis of the data obtained from the measurement tool. With this research, statistical answers were sought to the main problem question and sub-problem questions determined in the study. According to the results obtained from the data analysis of the research, it has been determined that preschool teachers have developed/mature epistemological beliefs and their proficiency in science activities in line with these beliefs is high. These results show that preschool teachers are more efficient and competent in putting science activities into action when they search for knowledge, investigate how knowledge is obtained, add and apply their own interpretations. In addition to these results, as a result of the regression analysis, it was determined that epistemological beliefs predicted and explained their proficiency in science activities.