Investigation of the effects of supporting science education with stories on students' attitudes towards science and technology

The aim of this research is to examine the effect of science lessons carried out through storytelling on students' attitudes towards science lessons, based on the view that it can make students' learning processes more effective and meaningful, enable them to establish a sensory and emotional bond, and increase their interest in the lesson by concretizing abstract scientific concepts. In the study, considering the research questions and data collection methods, a sequential explanatory design, which is a mixed method model that brings together quantitative and qualitative research approaches, was preferred in order to find answers to the questions. In the quantitative part of the study, a quasi-experimental design with pre-test post-test matched control group design was used. In the qualitative dimension of the study, a case study was used as a research design. In order to determine the attitudes of the students towards science courses, the "Science and Technology Attitude Scale" developed by Keçeci and Kırbağ Zengin (2015) and the "Opinion Form" developed by the researcher were used. The study group consists of 6th grade students studying in a public school in the Anamur district of Mersin province in the 2023-2024 academic year. A total of 38 students were studied in the experimental group (n=19) and the control group (n=19) with permission from the Ministry of National Education and the parents of the relevant students. While the Science course was conducted in the control group in accordance with the current Ministry of National Education curriculum; in the experimental group, the program was supported with scientific stories in addition to the current curriculum. The research was completed in 8 weeks. In the analysis of quantitative data, Mann-Whitney U and Wilcoxon Signed Rank Tests were used from non-parmetric tests. Qualitative data were analyzed by content analysis. As a result of the research, it was observed that supporting science education with stories had a positive effect on students' attitudes towards the course, although it was not statistically significant. The findings obtained from the student opinions show that science education supported by stories is interesting, attention-grabbing and increases learning motivation. It was determined that this technique increased students' interest in the course and contributed to the learning information becoming more permanent in the mind. It was also observed that stories transformed the learning environment into a more interactive and participatory structure and created a supportive learning atmosphere where students could express their thoughts freely.