The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of inquiry-based high school chemistry course and gender differences with respect to students&rsquo / understanding of atom concept, learning approaches, motivational goals, self-efficacy, and epistemological beliefs. In this study, 47 ninth grade students from classes of a chemistry course were taught by the same teacher in Private Y&uuml / ce Science High School in the 2003-2004-spring semester were enrolled. There were two groups in the study. Two instruction methods used in this study were randomly assigned to each group. The experimental group who received Inquiry-Oriented Instruction (IOI) consisted of 22 students while the control group who received Traditionally Designed Chemistry Instruction (TDCI) consisted of 25 students. To examine the effect of the treatment on dependent variables / students&rsquo / understanding of atom concepts measured by Chemistry Achievement Test (CAT), meaningful learning and rote learning measured by Learning Approach Questionnaire (LAQ), learning-goal orientation, performance-goal orientation and self-efficacy measured by Achievement Motivation Questionnaire (AMQ), and epistemological beliefs measured by Science Knowledge Questionnaire (SKQ). t-test and ANOVA were used to test hypotheses of the study. The results showed that the students who used the inquiry oriented instruction had significantly higher scores with respect to achievement related to atom concept than the students who taught with the traditionally designed chemistry instruction. On the other hand, inquiry oriented instruction did not effect students&rsquo / learning approaches, motivational goals, self-efficacy, and epistemological beliefs. And also, the present study failed to find neither difference between boys and girls nor interaction between treatment (IOI vs. TDCI) and gender with respect to students&rsquo / understanding of atom concept, learning approaches, motivational goals, self-efficacy, epistemological beliefs.

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