Effects of model-based science education on students’ academic achievement and scientific process skills

Research Article

Abstract

This research aims to determine the effects of model-based science teaching on students’ academic achievements and science process skills for a science and technology course. A quasi-experimental research method was used for this study. Study participants were 48 7th grade students. The application was carried out over a period of 4 weeks. During this research, the study’s experimental group received the model-based science teaching, while the study’s control group received regular science teaching in accordance with their usual coursebook. The assessment tools ‚the Achievement Test‛ and ‚the Science Process Skills Scale‛ were administrated as pretest and posttest. The SPSS 11.5 software package program was utilized to analyze the study data. It was found that the experimental group achieved higher scores in the achievement test and higher scale scores regarding science-process skills compared with those of the control group. It was concluded that the model-based science teaching made a positive contribution to the development of the students’ academic achievement and scientific process skills that might henceforth be successfully applied in science and technology courses.