The effect of authentic learning practices in science course on students' decision making skills and attitudes towards this course

In this study, it was aimed to determine the effect of authentic learning practices on students' decision-making skills and attitudes towards science course in 4th grade primary school science course. In the research, nested mixed design, which is one of the mixed method designs, has been adopted. The quantitative dimension of the study is composed of one-factor pretest-posttest control group and quasi-experimental mixed design. In the qualitative dimension of the research, the data were collected through documents. The study group of the research consists of the students of two 4th grade branches studying in a primary school located in the center of Hendek district of Sakarya province in the second semester of the 2018-2019 academic year. There are 21 students in the experimental group and 23 students in the control group. In the research, the data were collected via the Decision-Making Skills Scale, the Science Course Attitude Scale, and the researcher diaries. The experimental process of the research lasted a total of 7 weeks, 3 lessons per week. In the experimental group, the science course was carried out throughout the "Lighting and Sound Technologies" unit with authentic learning practices. In the control group, practices continued according to the current curriculum. Independent samples t-test, paired sample t-test, Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test and Mann-Whitney U tests were used in the analysis of quantitative data. Qualitative data obtained from researcher diaries were analyzed by descriptive analysis. According to the findings obtained from the quantitative data of the research, it is seen that there is no statistically significant difference between the experimental group and the control group's decision-making skills and attitudes towards the science course. In addition, it is seen that there is a statistically significant difference in favor of the post-test scores of both groups in the sub-dimension of Science Course Attitude Scale towards being willingness/unwillingness reluctant to science lesson. According to the findings obtained from the qualitative data of the research, it was concluded that the practices that will improve the decision-making skills of the students in the experimental group and run the elements of authentic learning continue. It is among the suggestions of the research that by designing thematically by bringing together different courses and conducting research with authentic learning practices that can continue all the courses of primary school together. Keywords: Authentic learning, science, decision making, attitude