Examination of science questions in secondary education entry exams according to the TIMMS-2019 cognitive domain

Internationally applied TIMSS, PISA and PIRLS studies are validated studies that determine the academic performance of our country and other countries by evaluating them within the scope of international criteria and also show our international academic success ranking. With the necessity of high school education in our country, the Transition to Secondary Education Exams (OGS), which are held at the end of primary education, are important for students and their parents who want to get quality/qualified secondary education. To determine the similarities and differences between national exams and international exams; it will encourage us to review our curriculum, which is a reflection of the questions asked in national exams, and therefore, studies for the renewal of the programs will increase the quality of teaching. In this study, 593 OGS Science questions asked to 8th grade students in transition from primary education to secondary education between 1998-2020 were classified according to TIMSS-2019 cognitive domain and sub-cognitive domains and compared according to years. The reflection of OGS question analysis on 1992, 2000, 2005, 2013 and 2018 Science Curriculum was also examined. The data of the research were obtained by document analysis method, which is one of the qualitative research methods. The classification of the investigated questions was made by the researcher and two experts, according to the cognitive domain criteria of TIMSS-2019 by translating the cognitive fields in the TIMSS-2019 introduction booklet into Turkish. The evaluation of the obtained findings on the basis of years was made by taking the percentage and frequency values. According to the findings, 31.2% of the Science questions asked to 8th grade students between 1998 and 2020 were in the "knowing" cognitive domain, 54.3% were in the "applying" and 14.5% were in the "reasoning" cognitive domain. An increase in the cognitive field of "reasoning" has been detected in recent years' examinaions. 2008 Secondary Education Institutions Exam (OKS) had been detected as the lowest level of exam with TIMSS-2019 cognitive daomain range. It can be said that the most consistent science questions with the TIMSS-2019 target perrentages are included 1999 LGS, 2009 SBS, 2016 April TEOG and 2020 LGS Exams. In the TIMSS-2019 cognitive domain classification of 1992, 2000, 2005, 2013 and 2018 Science Curriculum, it was seen that the exams covering 2000 Science Curriculum had the farthest values to the TIMSS-2019 target percentages whereas the exams covering 2018 Science Curriculum had the closest values. Analysis results in the past years in Turkey were evaluated on the basis of research on the TIMSS and OGS, TIMSS Turkey has made some suggestions for improving the cognitive achievement.