Investigation of association among scientific epistemological beliefs, intellectual risk taking and science achievement of middle school students

The purpose of the study is to investigate association among scientific epistemological beliefs, intellectual risk taking and science achievement of middle school students by path analysis technique. In the study, correlational research method was applied. The target population of the study involved all middle school students in Malatya city, while the sample was composed of 2119 middle school students in 2014/2015 term. 50.9% of the participants were female while 49.1% of them were male. For collection data, "Personal Information Form", "Scientific Epistemological Beliefs Scale", Intellectual Risk Taking Scale" and "Science Achievement Test" were used. During data analysis regarding the association among scientific epistemological beliefs, intellectual risk taking and science achievement, path diagrams and analysis were utilized. Results of the analyses showed that "certainty", "development" and "justification" aspects of scientific epistemological beliefs positively predicted science achievement while "source" aspect predicted negatively science achievement. Moreover it was found that intellectual risk taking levels of the students positively predicted science achievement. In conclusion it was seen that there were a causal association among scientific epistemological beliefs, intellectual risk taking and science achievement of middle school students.