Examination of science education curriculum within the scope of 2015 TIMSS and 2018 LGS

In addition to international studies, Turkey also revises its national education system. Turkey raised the duration of compulsory education from 8 to 12 years, which made high school education also compulsory. Students take AHS (Access to High Schools) to enter high schools and receive high-quality education. Therefore, exams mean a great deal to students and their parents. For this reason, this exams are also called high stakes exams in the literature. Exam results are an important criterion for the assessment of the effectiveness of curricula in Turkey. There is no doubt that AHS results also affect TIMSS results. Therefore, curricula are revised in line with needs and developments. Science Course Curriculum (SCC) was revised in 2013 and then revised again in 2017 and 2018 and implemented at all grade levels. Given that SCC prepares students for AHS and TIMSS, it is imperative that the compatibility of these three exams be examined. The aim of this study is to compare SCC (2018), TIMSS (2015) and AHS (2018) in terms of content domains, cognitive domains and learning outcomes. Case study, which is a qualitative research method, was used in this study. Data were analyzed using document review matrices to determine the similarities and differences between the learning outcomes of SCC, TIMSS and AHS. SCSS and AHS science questions were also classified according to TIMSS cognitive domains. Results show that the learning outcomes of the fields of physics, biology and earth sciences of TIMSS (2015) are compatible with those of all grade levels of SCC (2018) and that the learning outcomes of chemistry are compatible with those of the seventh and eighth grades. Most of AHS (2018) questions are compatible with the learning outcomes of SCC (2018), however, the latest revision in the curriculum has introduced some eighth grade learning outcomes to other grade levels. AHS (2018) science questions measure higher-level skills better than TIMSS (2015) science questions. The subject area of the "Living Creatures and Life" of SCC (2018) has the most learning outcomes in the levels of "knowing" and "reasoning" while the subject area of the "Physical Phenomena" has the most learning outcomes in the levels of "application." Besides, the seventh-, fifth- and eighth-graders have the most learning outcomes in the levels of "knowing," and "application" "reasoning," respectively. We hope that the results will contribute the literature in improvement of science curricula and interpretation of national and international exams.