The effect of journal assisted inquiry based teaching strategy on the outcomes of biology curriculum

In this study, it is aimed to examine the effect of journal assisted inquiry-based biology teaching (JAIBBT) on the learning outcomes of secondary school biology curriculum. The study was carried out with 73 students that are 11th grade and studying in a private high school in Ankara at the spring semester of the 2020-2021 academic year. This study has a mixed research design of "multifactorial experimental design for 4X4 independent groups" in the quantitative dimension, and a "case study" in the qualitative dimension. Teaching was completed in 10 weeks. Data were collected through "achievement test", "science process skills inventory", "motivated strategies for learning questionnaire", "journals" and "opinion form". Quantitative data, in-group comparisons "Wilcoxon signed-rank test", between groups "Kruskal Wallis H test" and qualitative data were also analyzed with content and descriptive analysis. The results are as follows: (1) Achievement increased significantly in all groups and shows that JAIBBT does not have a significant effect on students' achievement. Inquiry-based teaching develops students' science skills. JAIBBT developed expectation strategies but this increase within the group was not significant. JAIBBT improves the resource management strategies that is the sub-component of students' learning strategies, but this increase is not statistically significant. (2) Student journals show that JAIBBT also enables students to learn while having fun; positively affects the retention of their knowledge, their achievement, and their self-evaluation skills. (3) Opinion forms show that JAIBBT increases the motivation of the students, their success and interest in the lesson, teamwork, and self-evaluation skills.