Evaluation of tthe extent to which fifth grade science and technology course provides scientific process skills at primary school

The aim of this research is to determine to what extent the fifth graders at primary school acquire scientific process skills in the science and technology lessons. Therefore, it is a survey type of research. The sample of the study comprises a total of 512 students studying at the fifth grade of 15 public elementary schools in Malatya province. Data were collected using a questionnaire form. Reliability of the questionnaire was estimated .82. The questionnaire included 45 items with three answers ranging between ?Never (1), Partially (2), Completely (3)?. SPSS 10.0 Software program has been used for analyzing data. The data were analyzed using frequency and percentage, as well as significance test such as t-test, variance analysis (ANOVA), Mann Whitney U, Kruskal Wallis H according to the homogeneity of the variance.As a result of this research, it was found that the fifth grade science and technology lessons generally have the students acquire scientific process skills including observation, comparison-classification, inference, collecting data and information, interpretation?inference, comparison, guessing, determining variables, designing the experiment and recording data. On the other hand it was found that science and technology lessons improve those skills including data processing, model creating and presentation at a low level.Furthermore, it was found that such variables such as fathers educational level, possession of a personal computer and a private room cause significant differences between students views about to what extent the fifth grade science and technology lessons provide the scientific process skills, but other variables such as gender, family income and mothers educational level do not cause a significant difference.Finally, some suggestions are made based on these findings.