Investigation of the compatibility of the chemistry questions asked in high school and university entrance exam with the program

This study was carried out to investigate the relation of the gains of the students in chemistry and the questions asked by the chemistry teachers in high school and in University Entrance Exam (OSY) taken after the completion of the secondary education. A survey form was prepared for this purpose and sent to 100 chemistry teacher working in various high schools. They were asked to answer the questions and send the questions they asked in the exams throughout the year. The survey served the purpose of determining their opinions and level of their knowledge related to measurement and evaluation techniques, the measurement and evaluation tools they employ and their thoughts related to high school chemistry education and University Entrance Exam. Also some of the high schools were visited in Ankara to apply the survey to the teachers and obtain the exam questions they asked. In spite of the absolute guarantee of the anonymity to the teachers and the administrators and they were sent stamped envelopes the turned out remained as low as 30%. The study was carried out by the investigation of 210 exam papers received from 42 chemistry teachers working in various parts of the country, University Entrance Exam chemistry questions asked between 1999-2006 and the survey forms answered by total of 63 teachers. vii It was observed that the chemistry teacher focused on certain topics and there were no questions asked on certain subjects. There was a high and significant relation between the questions asked by the teachers and the questions asked in the University Entrance Exam as regards to content. As a result of the surveys and the interviews there were important deficiencies observed as regards to measurement and evaluation especially in senior teachers and they were observed not to have a sufficient grasp on indicator tables, Bloom taxonomy, conceptional changes and scientific process skills. The high school teachers are in the opinion that the distributions of the high school chemistry topics and the exam and university selection system have to be changed, necessary substructure should be established in order to carry out the education on a more laboratory based manner and the university entrance exam should be organized accordingly. According to them the students to the chemistry related departments of the universities should be selected primarily based upon the answers given to the chemistry questions in university entrance exam.