The effect of inquiry learning approach on elementary students' critical thinking dispositions and attitudes towards sciience and technology course

The aim of this study is to determine the effect of inquiry learning approach on elementary students? critical thinking dispositions and attitudes towards science and technology course. It is also examined if there is a difference in students? inquiry learning approaches, critical thinking dispositions and attitudes towards science and technology course in terms of their genders and grade levels. Within this aim Inquiry learning skills inventory, attitude scale towards science and technology, Cornell Critical Thinking Skills Test Level X and personal information form applied to students. Data gathering tools applied to 1023 6th, 7th and 8th grade students in center district of Aydın city in 2011-2012 academic year. In this study Kolmogorov- Smirnov tests, Two-Way Anova Tests and Multiple Linear Regression analysis are used to analize the data. Depending on research results it could be said that there is a significant difference between students? inquiry learning skills and critical thinking dispositions, there is a significant difference between students? and inquiry learning skills and attitudes towards science and technology and there is a significant difference between students? critical thinking dispositions and attitudes towards science and technology.A significant difference found in students? attitudes towards science and technology based on their grade levels. While a significant difference found in students? critical thinking dispositions based on their genders, no significant difference found based on grade levels. Also it is determined that there is not a significant difference in inquiry learning skills based on students? gender and grade levels.