Difficulties in developing the skills of identifying variables and establishing hypotheses of secondary school 6th grade students

This study aims to identify the difficulties encountered in the development of variable determination-control and hypothesis generation skills, which are among the scientific process skills of sixth grade students, and to present solutions to these difficulties. An explanatory sequential mixed design was used in the study. The participant group consisted of 42 students studying at a secondary school in the city center of Nevşehir. Since the researcher was also a science teacher in this study group, first quantitative and then qualitative data were collected. Thus, it was attempted to obtain the opportunity to reach more comprehensive and detailed structures regarding the situation under investigation. In the study, scientific process skills test, science course anxiety scale, motivation scale, semi-structured interview form and in-class observation form were used as data collection tools. The data collection process of the study lasted approximately sixteen weeks. In the analysis of the obtained data sets, both descriptive statistics (arithmetic mean, standard deviation, percentage rate, etc.) and statistical analysis methods considered to be inferential (T Test for Dependent Groups, Anova test, etc.) were used. In the analysis of the qualitative data obtained in the study, the descriptive analysis method was used to present quantitative and qualitative data for each sub-problem in an integrated manner. When the obtained data were examined, it was observed that the students had difficulty in determining the factors that needed to be controlled in the experimental setups and the variables to be manipulated, and in making scientific predictions based on the relationships between observations and data. It can be said that these difficulties arise from the fact that the students' scientific thinking and critical evaluation skills are not fully developed. According to the findings obtained from the research; it can be concluded that the attitudes of the students towards science directly affect their learning processes, and that students with positive attitudes participate more actively in the lessons and are more open to learning new concepts. It was also determined that the inadequacy of the teaching materials and the use of passive teaching methods in the classroom can reduce the students' interest and participation in the lessons. For these reasons, it is thought that teaching materials containing visual and practical elements, interactive teaching methods, experiments and practical activities can be effective in eliminating these difficulties. It is thought that the application of these listed strategies will help students effectively develop their scientific process skills.