Investigating the relationship between pre-servi̇ce science teachers' epistemological beliefs, teaching science as inquiry beliefs scientific attitudes, and their academic achievement

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationships between pre-service science teachers' epistemological beliefs, science teaching beliefs, scientific attitudes and their academic achievements. The study is designed as a survey research and the sample consisted of 329 science teacher candidates from 6 different state universities. Data were collected using Epistemological Beliefs Questionnaire, Teaching Science as Inquiry Instrument and Scientific Attitude Scale. Data were analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistical analyzes. For each variable of the study, descriptive analyzes including minimum, maximum, mean and standard deviation values were performed, and independent samples t-test was conducted to examine whether the mean values change significantly with respect to gender. The relationships between the variables of the study were tested by Pearson moment-product correlation, while the power of the belief that learning depends on effort, the belief that learning depends on ability and the belief that there is a single truth, to predict teaching science as inquiry, scientific attitude and academic achievement were tested by multiple regression analyses. According to the findings of the study, science teacher candidates believed that learning depends on effort, and that there was a statistically significant difference between males and females in the belief that learning depends on ability. Multiple regression analyses showed that the belief that learning depends on effort, the belief that learning depends on ability and the belief that there is a single truth explained 33% of the variance in teaching science as inquiry.