Investigation of 8th grade students' knowledge level about heat and temperature topic in terms of epistemological beliefs

In this study, it is aimed to investigate of epistemological beliefs and academic achievement on the knowledge levels of 8th-grade students about heat and temperature. The research is in the survey model which is one of the quantitative research models. The sample of the study consists of 15 middle schools in the city of Adana. The sample consisted of 823 8th grade students and 15 science teachers who teach science courses these students. "Heat and Temperature Student Concept Test", "Epistemological Belief Questionnaire", "Heat and Temperature Teacher Concept Test" and "The exam of transition from primary to secondary education " data collection tools were used as data collection tools to determine the heat and temperature concept knowledge level of the students and to determine variables which effects this knowledge level. Quantitative analyzes methods were used in the analysis of the data. From these analyses, it was revealed that heat and temperature concept knowledge was determined, epistemological beliefs and academic achievement scores predict each other independently or dependently, when the heat and temperature concepts knowledge increases, academic achievement and epistemological beliefs increase as well, there is a significant correlation between concepts knowledge level of heat and temperature and epistemological belief scale subscales. In addition to these analyses, it was revealed that if students had a high level of knowledge about heat and temperature test, their teachers also had higher level of knowledge on this test, and if students had higher levels of epistemological beliefs, their teachers had also high epistemological beliefs. Based on all the results obtained from the research, suggestions were made.