The determinig fifth grade students science process skill levels and their self-efficacy beliefs

The aim of study was to determine the fifth grade students' science process skill levels and their self-efficacy beliefs on the 'The Effect of Heat on Matter" subject and to investigate the relationship between the fifth grade students' science process skill levels and their self-efficacy beliefs. The methodology of this study was a survey model one of the quantitative researches. The sample group of the study was consisted of 84 fifth grade students (39 girls and 45 boys) attending a middle school in Bartin province. In this study in order to collect data, 15-itemed science process skill test and 18-itemed motived strategies for learning questionnaire were used. The data were analyzed via SPSS package program. In the study, in order to analyze the effect of gender on the students' science process skills and their self-efficacy beliefs, Mann-Whitney U Test analysis was used. In addition, Spearman correlation analysis was used to investigate the relationship between the students' science process skills and self- efficacy beliefs. The data of this study revealed that the students' basic process skills were at the highest level and the experimental skills were at the lowest level. It was found that there was no statistical significant relationship between students' scientific process skills and self-efficacy beliefs. Keywords: Science Education, Science Process Skills, Self-efficacy Beliefs