An analysis of Turkish primary school science curriculum learning objectives based on TIMSS 2019 framework

The aim of this thesis is to analyze and classify the most recent Turkish primary school Science curriculum objectives in terms of TIMSS 2019 content and cognitive domains. For this purpose, the research problem is stated in Introduction as "How is the distribution of cognitive qualities of the learning objectives in primary school Science curriculum according to TIMSS 2019 assessment framework in terms of cognitive domains and grade levels?". In the Theoretical Background section, Science curriculum, international comparison studies, TIMSS assessment framework, literature review, the purpose and significance of the research are explained in detail. In the Method section, case study was selected as one of the qualitative research designs for the purpose of the research, document analysis was used for the data collection tool, and to classify the objectives into cognitive domains with the aid of the coding scheme, the inter-rater reliability constant between coders was found to be 0,81. Findings reveal that the target percentages of the three content domains of TIMSS are Life Science (45%), Physical Science (35%) and Earth Science (20%), while the percentages of objectives of the four content domains in the corresponding Science curriculum are Living Things and Life (%24), Physical Events and Matter and Its Nature (63.3%), and Earth and Universe (12.7%), respectively; it is recommended that the Science curriculum learning objectives be distributed more evenly similar to those of TIMSS. As for the classification of 79 objectives of the Science curriculum according to TIMSS cognitive domains, 8 of them are in knowing, 51 in Applying, and 20 of them are in reasoning. The cognitive domains of these objectives are quite similar based on grade levels, and the percentage of the objectives at knowing are found to be the lowest among all. In the light of the literature, it is recommended that the number of objectives in knowing cognitive level be increased. Finally, according to another finding, of the objectives in Life Science content domain 10,5% are in knowing, 68,4% are in applying, and 21,1% are in reasoning. Similarly, while 10% of the objectives in Physical Science content domain are in knowing, 58% of them are in applying, and 32% are in reasoning; also 10% of the objectives in the Earth Science content domain are in knowing, 90% are in applying, but none are found to be in reasoning cognitive domain. It is observed that the objectives of the applying level are mostly represented, but the objectives in knowing cognitive domain are the least in every content domain, except Earth Science. Although the Science curriculum developers stated that they consciously prefer objectives of high cognitive levels, the absence of representation in reasoning in Earth Science content domain contradicts this statement. Accordingly, increasing the number of objectives of knowing level in each content domain, and adding objectives of reasoning level in the Earth Science content domain is recommended.