Didsci 2016) Was Organized by Department of Education of Natural Sciences, Faculty of Geography and Biology, Pedagogical University, Kraków, Poland

Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Research in Didactics of the Sciences DidSciJune 29th – July 2016 1st, 2016 Pedagogical University of Cracow, Institute of Biology, Department of Education of Natural Sciences Kraków 2016 Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Research in Didactics of the Sciences DidSciJune 29th – July 2016 1st, 2016 Editors: Paweł Cieśla, Wioleta Kopek-Putała, Anna Baprowska Pedagogical University of Cracow, Institute of Biology, Department of Education of Natural Sciences Kraków 2016 Editors: Paweł Cieśla, Wioleta Kopek-Putała, Anna Baprowska 7th International Conference on Research in Didactics of the Sciences, (DidSci 2016) was organized by Department of Education of Natural Sciences, Faculty of Geography and Biology, Pedagogical University, Kraków, Poland. The conference was held from June 29th trough July the 1st 2016 in Kraków, Poland Proceedings were reviewed by the Members of the Scientific Committee Typset: Paweł Cieśla Cover: Ewelina Kobylańska ISBN 978-83-8084-037-9 DidSci 2016 Scientific Committee Chair of the Scientific Committee Hana Čtrnáctová – the Czech Republic Members (in alphabetical order) Agnaldo Arroio – Brazil Martin Bilek – the Czech Republic Liberato Cardelini – Italy Paweł Cieśla – Poland Hanna Gulińska – Poland Vasil Hadzhiiliev – Bulgaria Lubomir Held – Slovakia Ryszard Maciej Janiuk – Poland Gayane Nersisyan – the Republic of Armenia Grzegorz Karwasz – Poland Jarmila Kmetova – Slovakia Vincentas Lamanauskas – Lithuania Małgorzata Nodzyńska – Poland Henryk Noga – Poland Wiktor Osuch – Poland Katarzyna Potyrała – Poland Miroslav Prokša – Slovakia Alicja Walosik – Poland How Self-Directed Learners Learn Science Meryem Nur Aydede Yalçin Niğde Üniversity, Faculty of Education, Department of Science Education, Nigde / Turkey Introduction Today, many countries are questioning their current education systems. The reason for this is that it has been realized that traditional education systems are no longer considered to be efficient and societies do not need stereotyped brains but curriculums that educate people who think analytically and critically, and solve problems. Therefore, curriculums developed today aim at students’ learning not by sitting quietly or hearing only the information transferred to them but by seeing, touching, analyzing, speaking and sharing, in other words they aim at active learning. In active learning process, students have the opportunity to take responsibility for managing their own learning processes. Students must set their own learning goals, plan and evaluate their levels in active learning. This allows students to continue learning after completing their education at schools by making lifelong learning and self-directed learning, currently one of the important skills in our society (Lunenberg, Volman, 1999; Euge`ne 2006). Self-directed learning skills are defined as students’ taking responsibility for their own learning process. Students with self-directed learning skills find appropriate resources for their learning goals and decide their learning and assessment methods by themselves (Russell, Comello and Wright, 2007). 2013 Science course curriculum in Turkey is based on an inquiry-based learning approach. In the 2013 Science course curriculum, it is intended to create a classroom environment in which students are responsible for their own learning, active participation is ensured in the learning process, and activities that allow constructing information in mind are developed. This change occurring in Turkish education system was the starting point of this study. Hence, in this study, unstructured interviews were conducted with 37 sixth grade students who were studying at a state secondary school and had good level self-directed learning skills. With the findings obtained from this study, teachers will guide students to orient them towards behaviors that will help them acquire self-directed learning skills in classroom environment. 7 Method Case study approach which is one of the qualitative research method was used in this study. The research was conducted in the 2015-2016 academic year. Population and Sample Self-directed learning skill scale for science and technology course was used in the study to determine which students had good level self-directed learning skills. The scale developed by Aydede and Kesercioğlu (2009) and consists of two factors. These factors include “Planning Self-directed Learning “ (α = 91), and “Self-Confidence in Self-directed Learning” (α = 78) “. The reliability coefficient (Cronbach Alpha) regarding the whole scale was 0.86. The other data collection tool was unstructured interviews. For this reason, self-directed learning skills scale for Science and Technology course developed by Aydede and Kesercioğlu (2009) applied to 78 6th grade student studying at a state school in Nigde, Tukey. After the descriptive analysis results of self-directed learning scale, the research group of the study consisted of 37 sixth grade students with high level (higher then 93) self-directed learning skills at a state school in the city centre of Nigde according to purposeful sampling method. Related results about the descriptive analysis results were presented in Table 1. Table 1. 6th grade students’ self directed-learning scale points’ aritmatical average Students Students Students Students Students S1 121,00 S9 109,00 S17 102,00 S24 97,00 S31 95,00 S2 121,00 S10 107,00 S18 102,00 S25 97,00 S32 95,00 S3 115,00 S11 106,00 S19 101,00 S26 97,00 S33 95,00 S4 115,00 S12 105,00 S20 101,00 S27 96,00 S34 94,00 S5 114,00 S13 105,00 S21 100,00 S28 96,00 S35 94,00 S6 114,00 S14 104,00 S22 99,00 S29 96,00 S36 93,00 S7 110,00 S15 104,00 S23 99,00 S30 95,00 S37 93,00 S8 110,00 S16 103,00 While researching the learning ways of 37 6th grade students who had good level self-directed learning skills, unstructured interview technique was used as a second data collection tool. According to Cohen, Manion and Morrison (2007), interview technique is used to collect rich and extensive amount of information in 8 qualitative research in which the working group is often kept small. The interviews conducted during the research were generally carried out within the framework of the question,how do you learn science? The interviews were recorded through a tape recorder. The analysis regarding the data was conducted after transferring the data recorded on the tape recorder to a computer environment. Data analysis Descriptive analysis and content analysis techniques were used to analyze the data. Frequency analysis, one of the descriptive analysis methods, was performed for the analysis of the data obtained from the self-directed learning skills scale applied to 78 sixth grade students. In the analysis of the interview data conducted with 37 students with good level self-directed learning skills, content analysis method was used. Before the content analysis of the qualitative data, interview results were transferred to a computer software. Then, determined codes were determined about the students learning ways towards science course. The reliability of the study was calculated by the formula that Miles and Huberman (1994) proposed for qualitative research. The interview data transferred to a computer were divided into categories by being coded by two different faculty members. The reliability was found to be 0.88 by calculating the items about which the two different researchers reached an agreement and had disagreement. The fact that the reliability was over 0.70 is an indicator that this study is reliable. Findings As a result of the detailed interviews performed with 37 sixth grade students, it was found out that the 37 students who got good scores from the self-directed learning skills scale used these learning ways while learning science; learning by using the internet (f = 31), learning by writing (f = 21), learning with the help of the family (f = 20), learning from textbooks (f = 16), learning by doing research (f = 17), learning by studying from books apart from textbooks (f = 15), learning from class notes (f = 14), learning by solving test (f = 13), memorizing (f = 12), learning with the help of teachers (f = 12), learning by summarizing the subject (f = 7), learning by getting help from friends (F = 4), learning by watching videos (f = 2), learning from what the teacher has told during the course (f = 2), learning through experiments (f = 1). The diagram about these finding is presented at Figure 1. Totally 23 of the students who participated in the interview stated that they learnt better through group work. The students learning with a group were also the ones with higher grade point averages. Out of the 23 students pointing out that they learnt better through group work, 21 of them stated that they learnt mostly by 9 using the internet during the group work and 14 of them indicated that they learnt by getting help from their families. Figure 1. Content analysis and descriptive analysis results of unstructured analysis results. Totally 14 of the students participating in the study preferred individual learning. The students who preferred individual learning were the ones with relatively lower grades in the science course. It was detected that eight of the 14 students who preferred individual learning learnt by memorizing and 10 of them learnt by using the internet. Results and Conclusions In conclusion, the learning ways that students with self-directed learning skills used most frequently was learning by doing research

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