Investigation of the effect of entrepreneurship-supported project-based science education on the entrepreneurship perceptions and cognitive flexibility of secondary school students

The aim of this study is to determine the effect of entrepreneurship-supported project-based science education on secondary school students' entrepreneurship perceptions and cognitive flexibility and to examine their views on this. The sample of the study consisted of 34 students, 19 in the experimental group and 15 in the control group, studying in the 5th grade of a public school in Adıyaman province in the autumn term of the 2021-2022 academic year. In the study, parallel (simultaneous quantitative + qualitative) mixed method, one of the mixed method research models, was used. The study was conducted with a quasi-experimental design with pretest-posttest control group from quantitative research designs and a case study, one of the descriptive research methods, from qualitative research designs. In the collection of data; Entrepreneurship Perception Scale for Secondary School Students, Cognitive Flexibility Inventory, Blob Tree Self-Assessment Form, student diaries and responses obtained from focus group interviews were used. The data were analysed by using hypothesis tests for the Entrepreneurship Perception Scale for Secondary School Students and the Cognitive Flexibility Inventory; the Blob Tree Self-Assessment Form was analysed by content analysis, and the student diaries and focus group interviews were analysed by descriptive analysis. According to the results obtained; it was determined that the practices carried out in the research contributed positively to the entrepreneurship perceptions and cognitive flexibility of the experimental group students. In addition, as a result of the diaries and focus group interview analyses, it was determined that students' perceptions of entrepreneurship changed positively. It was concluded that the results of the qualitative data obtained also supported the quantitative findings. Suggestions were presented in line with the results obtained from the research. Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Project-based teaching; Cognitive flexibility; Science education