The effects of different laboratory techniques on students? science process skills, views towards nature of science, attitudes towards laboratory and learning approaches in science and technology course

The purpose of the study is to determine the effects of open-ended and inquiry-based laboratory techniques on students? science process skills, views toward nature of science, attitudes toward laboratory and learning approaches in science and technology course.The study was conducted with 30 students as experimental-1 group, 31 students as experimental-2 group and 30 students as control group. The experimental-1 group received open-ended experiment technique and experimental-2 group received inquiry-based experiment technique while the control group received regular science education depending on the Science and Technology Curriculum (?Force and Motion? and ?Electricity in Our Life? Units) over a period of 8 weeks. All groups were given science process skills scale, scientific knowledge scale, attitude scale towards science laboratory and the science learning approach questionnaire. Besides, 5 students from experimental-1 and axperimental-2 group were interviewed before and after the instruction about the scientific knowledge and learning approaches. In addition, all students from experimental-1 and axperimental-2 group were observed during the instruction about levels of science process skills usage.The results showed that there are significant differences among experimental-1, emperiment-2 and control group students with respect to their science process skills and science learning approach in favor of experimental-1 and experimental-2 groups. On the other hand, there were no significant differences observed between experimental-1, experimental-2 groups. Besides, it was seen that there were a correlation in the middle level (r = 0.556) between experimental-1 group students? observation scores identifying levels of science process skills usage and science process skills scale scores. Similarly, it was seen that there were a correlation in the middle level (r = 0.656) between experimental-2 group students? observation form scores identifying levels of science process skills usage and science process skills scale scores. In addition to this, it was seen that the interview results of the students from experimental-1 and experimental-2 groups and the scores from the post-tests at the end of the study are parallel in general.