Investigation of science learning skills of middle school students in different grade levels according to various variables

The purpose of this research is to investigate how the ability to learn and understand science of students at different grade levels can be changed according to variables. The study was conducted with nested mixed design, which is one of the mixed method designs. The study involved 805 secondery school students at different grade levels in 6 different secondary schools in the center of the city in the northeastern Turkey. . (195 of the students are in the 5th grade, 194 students are 6th grade, 225 students are 7th grade and 190 students are 8th grade students.). In this research; Competencies for Learning Science scale that was developed by Chang et all (2011), open ended questions and semi-structured interviews were used. SPSS program was used for statistical analysis of the data collected with the Science Learning Skill Scale. In this data analysis Mann Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis test were used. Also students' and teachers' opinions which where obtained through open ended questions and semi-structured interviews were analyzed by content analysis. As a result of the research, it was found that each subscale of competence scale for learning science scores of the students was above average, the difference according to gender was in favor of female students, parent education was related to competence for learning science, students' inquiry and communication competencies with high science achievement were high, it was found that as the grade level increased, scientific inquiry competencies increased. It was determined that teachers and students had parallel views about the course of science. Teachers and researchers were advised to direct students to the research inquiry process. Keywords: Competence for Science Learning, Scientific Inquiry Competence, Communication Competence, Science Achievement