ABSTRACT COMPARISON OF 2002 AND 2004 ELEMENTARY SCIENCE CURRICULA WITH RESPECT TO COGNITIVE AND AFFECTIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF STUDENTS Oru&ccedil / , Akif M.S., Department of Secondary Science and Mathematics Education Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Giray Berberoglu June 2009, 116 pages The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of 2004 elementary science and technology curricula at grade level 7. For this purpose, the effect of 2004 curricula on the (1) achievement of the students in knowledge, conceptual understanding and higher order thinking skills clusters, (2) attitude toward science and technology, (3) teachers&rsquo / classroom activities were evaluated. This study was conducted on 290 7th grade students at six elementary schools in 2006-2007 spring term. These schools were located in Sincan, Yenimahalle and Mamak in Ankara. Two schools were administering 2004 curricula as pilot group and four of them were teaching science with 2002 curricula. Grade level 7 was selected for the study since both 2002 and 2004 curricula were being implemented in the schools only at this particular grade level. The achievement test questions were selected from TIMMS science achievement tests and the researcher&rsquo / s own questions written in line with the test plan. The questions include the common objectives of both 2002 and 2004 curricula. The Test of Science Related Attitudes was developed by Chaerul (2002). As a result of the factor analysis it was decided that, the scale contains five sub categories: Social implication of science, Scientist lifestyle, Enjoyment of learning in science lesson, Leisure interest in science, and Career interest in science. Teachers&rsquo / Classroom Activities Scale was taken from Pekiner (2007). It was decided that, the scale contains five sub categories / New Approach, Care of Teacher, Use of Equipment by teachers, Classical Classroom Activities and Processing the Subject category. The data were analyzed by using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). The results of this analyses indicated no major difference between two science curricula. On the other hand, significant differences were found in leisure interest of students and use of equipment by teachers in favor of 2004 curricula. Knowledge and conceptual understanding level learning, the enjoyment of learning in science lesson and teachers&rsquo / classroom activities with reference to new approaches indicated significant results in favor of 2002 curricula.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of instructional comics on sixth grade students&#039 / achievement in heat and temperature. The population of the study was all of the sixth grade students in public elementary schools in Y&uuml / z&uuml / nc&uuml / Yil district. The sample of the study was 113 sixth graders from three public elementary schools in Y&uuml / z&uuml / nc&uuml / Yil district. In the beginning of the matter and heat chapter of science and technology course, the implementation started with the pretest. Then, a series of comics were implemented to the students for two weeks. Then, the implementation ended with the posttest. Data were analyzed through MANCOVA where the independent variable is the treatment implemented to the students. The dependent variables are students&#039 / achievement in heat transfer, enjoyment of science and perception of success in science. It was statistically found that there is no significant effect of the treatment on the combination of the dependent variables. However, when the effects of the treatment on the dependent variables is investigated separately, it was found that students in the treatment group got significantly higher scores than the students in the control group. On the other hand, it was also found that there is no significant difference in students&#039 / enjoyment of science and their perception of success in science between the groups. In addition, it was observed that instructional comics increase the participation of reluctant students.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that are related to students&rsquo / science achievement in TIMSS-R. Basically instructional activities, affective characteristics of students and socioeconomic status (SES) were taken as the variables of the model proposed within the Linear Structural Modeling (LSM) framework. This study examined the TIMSS data for Turkish students with the sample size of 7841 through the analysis of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Resulting path diagram showed that the largest relationship existed between science achievement and SES of students. It was also observed that students&rsquo / enjoyment of science did not seem to have a significant contribution on science achievement. In addition, science achievement had a negative relationship with the classroom activities considered as student-centered. On the other hand, the activities considered as teacher-centered had a positive impact on the science achievement scores of the TIMSS tests. It was also observed that science achievement and perception of success/failure in science were highly related with each other. The results were interpreted within the framework of Turkish educational system, and some suggestions for future research studies were proposed.

This study aimed to explore the self-estimated intelligence dimensions of seventh and tenth grade students, and the effect of grade level, gender, age, socio economic status (SES), physics/science achievement, and branch in school (science-math/literature-math/social sciences-literature) on these dimensions. In this study a Multiple Intelligence Inventory was used as measuring instrument. The study was conducted in randomly selected 26 elementary and 7 high schools throughout &Ccedil / ankaya, Ke&ccedil / i&ouml / ren and Yenimahalle districts of Ankara with a total of 3721 seventh and tenth grade students in fall 2003-2004 semester. The data obtained from the administration of the measuring instrument were analyzed by using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and bivariate correlations. Results indicated that most dominant intelligence of seventh, tenth, and all students was the interpersonal intelligence according to their self-perceptions. Results of the statistical analyses indicated that grade level of students had a significant effect on their self-estimated intelligence dimensions. Strengths and weakness of the students vary according to their grade level. Also, significant differences found in female and male students&amp / #65533 / self-estimated intelligence dimensions for both two different grade levels, and tenth grade students coming from three different branches. Bivariate correlations revealed low positive correlations between science achievement and interpersonal intelligence of seventh graders.

Teachers are percived as primary role in a students&#039 / learning process. To adequately perform this role, certain teacher characteristics are potentially more valuable for encouraging student learning. In an attempt to discern those charactersitics related to student learning and teacher behavior in the science classroom, numerous studies have beenconducted. The aim of this study is modeling the relationship between the teacher characteristics abd the student science achievement. Modeling analysis was carried out by using the data collected for the Third Internatioal Mathematics and Science Study (TIMS, 1999) for Turkey with Science Teacher Background Questionnaire and students&#039 / achievement test scores. For the analysis LISREL package program was used. The results show that the students of teachers who prefer student-centered learning activities got low scores from science achievement test in TIMSS. Also teachers believe that disruptive and uninterested students in the class negatively affect sciecne achievement. Moreover, there is a positive significant relationship between the science achievement and the tasks that includes anlayze relationship, explain reasoning, and work on problems. In the present study you can find an analysis about the contradiction of the some of the results of the study with the current literature in the field of education.

This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of hands-on activity enriched instruction on sixth grade students&rsquo / achievement (on sense organs) and attitudes towards science. In this study, Science Achievement Test and Science Attitude Scale were used to assess students&rsquo / achievement on sense organs and students&rsquo / attitudes towards science, respectively. Also, hands-on activities about sense organs were prepared. This study was conducted with 2 teachers and 4 classes and total of 140 sixth grade students in the public elementary schools at Ke&ccedil / i&ouml / ren district of Ankara in the fall semester of 2002-2003 academic years. One class of each teacher was assigned as experimental group and treated with hands-on activity enriched instruction and other class was assigned as control group and treated with traditional instruction. At the beginning of the study, both teachers were trained for how to implement hands-on activity enriched instruction in the classrooms. The Science Achievement Test and The Science Attitude Scale were applied twice as pre-test and after three week treatment period as a post-test to both experimental and control groups to assess and compare the effectiveness of two different types of teaching utilized in science course. The data obtained from the administration of post-test were analyzed by statistical techniques of Multivariate Analyses of Covariance (MANCOVA). The statistical result indicates that hands-on activity enriched instruction was more effective than traditional instruction. However, the statistical results failed to show a significant difference between the experimental and control groups attitudes toward science.

Doctor of Philosophy / Curriculum and Instruction Programs / F. Todd Goodson / English language learners (ELLs) are expected to meet the same academic standards as those of their fluent English-speaking peers while simultaneously acquiring a second language. When content area instruction is embedded with literacy-based tasks, ELLs' achievement is both the acquisition of content area knowledge and English language skills can be anticipated. Science is a content area that can provide a deep context for ELLs to develop academic language because students must use their literacy skills to gather information about scientific concepts. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of an instructional intervention integrating literacy-based practices in science on third grade ELLs' science achievement and English language development. The mixed methods study was conducted at an elementary school in the Midwest, United States. There were 12 participants, eight identified as ELL and four fluent English speakers. Four of eight identified as ELL received the intervention while the remaining four ELL and fluent English speakers were instructed by the classroom teacher. The intervention was based on the systematic and repeated practice of language strategies and explicit vocabulary instruction. Authentic communication was used during scientific inquiry, discussions, and the reading of expository science text. Both quantitative and qualitative data was collected from pre and posttest data from five FOSS I-Check assessments, researcher's observations and field notes, participants' artifacts such as science journal entries and reflections, classroom teacher interview, and recorded session videos. The data was coded and analyzed identifying major themes which are noted in the findings. The results concluded the four participants who received the intervention outperformed their ELL peers not receiving the intervention but were still slightly behind their English-speaking peers. Overall, the participants receiving the intervention showed gains in their productive language as reflected in their utilization of domain-specific vocabulary in their speaking and writing. The conclusions drawn from this study included ELLs can benefit from receiving an integrated literacy/science intervention in both their acquisition of scientific knowledge and language development.

Efforts to understand growth and disparities in science achievement have mainly been focused on the middle and high school grades in studies of K – 12 science education, leaving a gap in the research about the early elementary years. This study used a nationally-representative sample of students in Grades K – 2 to examine science achievement and growth trajectories of students by gender and race/ethnicity. Using multilevel growth modeling, differences in science achievement at Grade 2 and in rate of growth were detected for several student groups. Socioeconomic status, prior reading and math achievement, and student home language status were also significant predictors of science achievement. Growth effect size estimates were calculated by student group and showed substantial year-to-year growth in science achievement in the early elementary grades, with a slight decrease in effect size across years. In order to strengthen current efforts to increase student engagement and participation in science and STEM-related career and college pathways, especially for historically underrepresented groups, policymakers should shift focus to better understand promising practices that best support all students in science from the onset of their K – 12 educational experience.

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CONTRIBUTION OF SOME FACTORS TO EIGHTH GRADE STUDENTS&rsquo / SCIENCE ACHIEVEMENT IN TURKEY: TIMSS 2007 KORKMAZ, Fettah M. S., Department of Secondary Science and Mathematics Education Supervisor: Prof. Dr. &Ouml / mer GEBAN September 2012, 120 pages The purpose of this study is to determine some of the factors that affect science achievement of eighth grade students in Turkey based on data results of Trends in International Science and Mathematics Study (TIMSS 2007). The present study investigated the relationship between the students&rsquo / achievement in science and certain factors such as student centered activities perceived by students, teacher centered activities perceived by students, students