Investigation of perceptions of the students and teachers on the implementation of seven principles of Chickering and Gamson in Science and Technology Courses

Many investigations to improvement the education have been made and several criterions have been developed to enhance by different scientist and working groups education. One of the most important studies for this topic is seven principles developed by Chickering and Gamson. Chickering and Gamson developed the seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. The seven principles are; encouraging contacts between students and faculty, developing reciprocity and cooperation among students, using active learning techniques, giving prompt feedback, emphasizing time on task, communicating high expectations, and respecting diverse talents and ways of learning. The seven principles are effectively on all milestone of the education. In this study, implementation of Chickering and Gamson's seven principles in middle schoool science and techonology courses was investigated. In this study, surveys and interviews were used as data collection method. The survey entitled " Seven principles for good science education" that for teachers and students was used. The survey entitled "Seven principles for good science education" is translated to Turkish and adopted to middle school science course version the survey named "7 Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education: Faculty Inventory" that developed by Chickering and Gamson. Data were collected from 285 science and technology teachers and 3000 students in the middle schools located in provincial centre, boroughs and surrounding countryside of Elazig. 45 teachers and 83 students participated in the interviews.From the obtained data, it was clearly detected that these seven principles were implemented in different levels by the teachers and the difference were detected on the implementation of these principles aeross location areas of the schools. Interviewees provided various examples of how the teachers have practiced the strategies for implementation of these principles. Key Words: Good teaching, Seven principles for good teaching, Science education, Perceptions