Teachers' Views on the Effects of Inquiry-Based Science Education on the Learning Process of Bilingual Students

Abstract

New learning methods have been applied every day regarding education and training, and these methods have been used for students to better understand and structure knowledge. As one of these methods, inquiry-based learning is used in primary school science teaching. Turkiye has a rich and diverse cultural structure. Thanks to this diversity, different languages are spoken in various regions apart from Turkish as the official language in Turkiye. In our study, it is aimed to benefit from teacher views about the learning processes of bilingual students who are applied inquiry-based science teaching. The experiences of teachers who have bilingual students in their class were questioned. The study used the phenomenological research model, one of the qualitative methods. The research group consists of 7 teachers who are chosen voluntarily from teachers with bilingual students in the classroom. A semi-structured interview form developed by the researcher was used to collect the research data. While these forms, which included open-ended questions, were applied, the interviews were recorded. These collected data were analyzed by content analysis method. Research findings indicate that inquiry-based science teaching positively affects the learning processes of bilingual students. It has been determined that students' conceptual understanding, participation and interest in the lesson, group working and cooperation skills, science lesson attitudes, problem solving skills and permanent learning are increased.