Determination of relationship between 6th, 7th and 8th grade elementary students' learning styles and their inquiry learning skills

Main aim of this study is to determine 6th,7th and 8th grade elementary students? learning styles and relationship with their inquiry based learning skills. It is examined if there is a difference in 6th,7th and 8th grade elementary students? inquiry based learning skills in terms of their genders, grade levels and socio-economical status. Also it is examined if there is a significant relationship between students? learning styles and inquiry based learning skills. Within this aim, Learning style inventory, Inquiry learning skills inventory and personal information form applied to students. Data gathering tools applied to 947 6th, 7th and 8th grade students from low, medium and high socio-economic level elementary schools in center district of Aydın city in 2010-2011 academic year. Frequency and percentage distributions are calculated. Also t- test and ANOVA used. Chi- square test used in Learning style inventory. Pearson product moment correlation analysis was used to solve relationship between students? learning styles and inquiry learning skills. Depending on research results, it could be said that there is a significant difference between students? learning styles and inquiry learning skills based on gender and grade level. No significant difference found in students? learning styles based on their socio-economic status while a significant difference found in students? inquiry learning skill points based on their socio-economic status. Also low level negative relationship found between diverger, assimilator subscales and inquiry learning skills. A low level, positive relationship found between converger, accommodator subscales and inquiry based learning skills.Key words: Learning Style, Inquiry Learning Skill, Elementary Students, Science Education