Exploring the role of the teacher-student relationship on secondary school students' science self-efficacy and science anxiety

In this study; the role of the teacher-student relationship on the science self-efficacy and science anxiety of secondary school students and whether this role differs according to the gender of the students were investigated. The population of the study consists of secondary school students studying in Istanbul, and the sample consists of 641 (431 boys, 67% and 210 girls, 33%) students studying in three different public secondary schools in the Küçükçekmece district of Istanbul. The study was carried out in the first semester of the 2023-2024 academic year, and "Teacher-student relationship", "Science Self-efficacy" and "Science Anxiety" scales were applied to the students as data collection tools. The data of the study were collected using the relational research design within the scope of quantitative research and analyzed with SPSS package programs. According to the descriptive analysis results of the research data, teacher-student relationship and science self-efficacy mean scores were higher than the total score mean, while the science anxiety means score was lower than the total score mean. Additionally, the regression analysis result showed that the teacher-student relationship was a significant predictor of secondary school students' science self-efficacy and science anxiety. The t-test analysis result of the research data showed that there was a significant difference between the gender of the students and the teacher-student relationship and science self-efficacy, and this difference was in favor of female students. However, it was observed that students' science anxiety did not make a significant difference according to gender. Keywords: Science anxiety, Science self-efficacy, Secondary school students, Teacher-student relationship.