Determination and comparison of gaining scientific processing skills which lies in 2000 science and 2005 science and techonology curriculum

This study aimed i) to determine the scientific processing skills that are stated in 2000 Science and 2005 Science and Technology curriculum, ii) to compare the scientific processing skills in both curriculums iii) to find out the effect of these two curriculums on the development of pupils? scientific processing skills and iv) to reveal the effect of socio-economic status and gender in terms of scientific processing skills, if there is any.In this study, the scientific processing skill test (SPST) used to measure the scientific processing skills of the pupils. The SPST was originally developed by Kathleen A. Smith and translated into Turkish language by the experts in science and language. There are fifty questions in the SPST which was prepared by second stage (6-8 classes). The questions in the SPST aim to measure the following skills: observation, classification, inference, estimate, measurement, communication, space-time relationship, operational definition, forming hypothesis, conducting experiment, determination of variables, data interpretation, and constructing a model.In terms of the SPST, the reliability and validity analysis were made and the data were evaluated by calculation of the Kuder Richardson-20 coefficient. The reliability value was found as 0.86.Three of them were applying 2000 science curriculum and the other three were applying 2005 science and technology curriculum. The SPST was applied as a pretest and posttest to the pupils at class 7 in September- June 2007. Five hundred and 556 pupils participated to the pretest and 521 pupils participated to the posttest.The analysis of the data showed that there is a statistically significant difference between the SPST results of the pupils in favour of schools that applied 2005 science and technology curriculums where the following points are emphasized: constructive learning approach, taking into consideration individual differences, describing as well classifying scientific processing skills, connecting gaining in the units with scientific processing skills