The effect of inquiry-based learning strategy in science education on the students' academic achievements and attitudes: a meta analysis study

There is a need for individuals who can adapt to changing living conditions to keep up with rapidly changing and developing science and technology. Science courses play an important role in training individuals with these features. By teaching science, it is possible for individuals to observe the environment they live in and to be able to interpret it by creating a cause-effect relationship. Science programs are gaining importance in the formation of individuals who are able to adapt to the environment and by this way to learn the information, think analytically and solve problem. Thanks to the inquiry-based learning strategy which is taken as root for science education programs in the last few years, the students can examine the environment they are in by using scientific methods. Thus, acquiring skills such as defining problems, observing, constituting hypothesis, reaching a conclusion and interpreting them will become easier. Besides this, the classes where the inquiry-based learning strategy, which plays an important role in understanding and explaining the real life, is used, to enable to teach the concepts in a meaningful way. It is understood that this strategy plays an important role in giving dimensions such as understanding the nature of science, thinking and interpreting the science and developing the interest and attitude towards science, through teaching the science concepts related to daily life. It is observed that there are many studies examining the effect on various variables of the inquiry-based learning strategy which has an important role in the formation of students in terms of the dimensions mentioned. However, a small number of studies revealing the impact level of this strategy from a holistic perspective are seen. That is why, in this study, it is aimed to demonstrate how effective is inquiry-based learning strategy on students' academic achievements and attitudes by using meta-analysis method. For this purpose, experimental and quasi-experimental studies examining the effect of the inquiry-based learning strategy on academic success and attitude between the years 2000-2017 are examined. ULAKBİM, Higher Education Council National Thesis Center (YÖK) and Google Academic data bases are taken as basis in the determination of the researches included in the study. As a result of the literature review, a general view has been obtained by combining meta-analysis with 53 works on academic success and 40 studies on attitude, in accordance with the research problem. The effect size values of the studies included in the meta-analysis are calculated using the CMA (Comprehensive Meta Analysis) program. As a result of the study, it has been observed that the effect of inquiry-based learning strategy on students' academic achievement and attitudes is more effective than other teaching methods (teaching methods applied in control groups). The overall effect size of the inquiry-based learning strategy on academic achievement was found to be moderate with 0.700 according to the random effects model; the overall effect size for the attitude was found to be moderate with 0.414 according to the random effects model. The effect sizes of the various criteria used in studies included in the research are also observed. These criteria which have been taken into account as moderator variables are determined as being the class level, the type of publication, the size of the samples and the year the studies have been made. The effect sizes have been analyzed separately for each moderator. As a result, in the inquiry-based learning strategy, the effect size of the class level was found as 0.685, the effect size of the types of publication as 0.734, the effect size of samples number as 0.686 and the effect size of their year of preparation was found as 0.731, in term of academic success variable. And in terms of the attitude variable, the effect size of the class level was 0.400, the effect size of the types of publication was 0.417, the effect size of the samples number was 0.414 and the effect size of the years they were made was 0.400. Besides this, place were given to the analyses of publication bias, normal distribution and histogram graphs. As a result of all these analyzes which have been conducted, it is hoped that the studies related to inquiry-based learning strategy will be examined in a wide perspective and will be a source of prospective research which will examine students' academic achievement and attitudes. However, at the end of the study, some suggestions have been made concerning the inquiry-based learning strategy and new meta-analysis studies.