Middle school students' motivational, cognitive and meta-cognitive competences and their attitudes and anxiety toward science course

The aim of the present study is to reveal the relations among competences towards Science Course, attitudes and learning anxiety states of sixth, seventh and eighth grades secondary school students. Sample of the study designed as a correlational survey model consists of 644 sixth, seventh and eighth graded secondary school students in a county in Thrace region. The sample has 361 (56.1%) girls and 283 (43.9 %) boys. Data was collected through personal information form prepared by the researcher; Motivational, Cognitive and Metacognitive Competences Scale (MCMCS) developed by Mok, Fan and Pang (2007) and adapted to Turkish by Aktamış and Uça (2010); Elementary Students' Attitudes towards Science and Technology Course Scale developed by Nuhoğlu (2008) and Science Course Learning Anxiety Scale developed by Yıldırım (2015). In order to answer the first sub-problem of the study, mean and standard deviation scores were calculated by doing descriptive analyses of the scores of motivational, cognitive and metacognitive competences, attitude and anxiety. According to these analyses, it was determined that scores of motivational, cognitive and metacognitive competence were high ( MCMCS= 4,19), those of attitude were high ( Attitude= 2,78) and those of anxiety were low ( Anxiety= 2,13). In order to answer the second sub-problem of the study, four Kruscal Wallis H tests were done according to class level, mother education level, father education level and family income; two Independent Samples t tests were done according to gender and labarotary state to determine the differences between the scores that students took from the scales within the present study. At the end of the analyses done with the scores of motivational, cognitive and metacognitive competence; a significant difference was determined on the sub-scale of Regulation of Learning Process in favour of girls according to gender. It was determined that there were statistically significant differences (p< 0.05) according to class level on the sub-scale scores of Real Value of Learning, according to mother education level on the sub-scale scores of Using Learning Strategies, according to father education level on all the sub-scales scores apart from the sub-scale scores of Real Value of Learning, according to family income on the sub-scale scores of Self Efficacy, Using Learning Strategies, Evaluation of Learning Process and those of the total scale. At the end of the analyses done with the scores of attitudes towards Science course; significiant differences were determined on the sub-scale of Enjoying Doing Activities in Science Course in favour of girls according to gender, in favour of laboratory not available according to laboratory state.Significant differences were determined on the sub-scale scores of Being Successful-Unsuccessful and on the total scale scores according to both mother-father education levels and family income. At the end of the analyses done with the scores of anxiety towards Science course; significant differences were determined on the sub-scales scores of Avoidance Anxiety from the Course, Anxiety Towards the Course and on the total scale scores according to class level and family income. In order to answer the third sub-problem of the study, Pearson Correlation Analysis was done. A significant positive correlation (p< 0.05) was determined between the scores of motivational, cognitive and metacognitive competence and that of attitude towards Science course and significant negative correlations (p< 0.05) were determined between the scores of the above scales and anxiety towards Science course. In order to answer the fourth sub-problem of the study, regression analysis was done for prediction. Students' motivational, cognitive and metacognitive competences explain their attitudes towards Science course at the rate of 28% and their anxieties towards Science course at the rate of 26%. In the present study, the finding of labaratory not-available students' scores were higher on the sub-scale of enjoying Doing Activities in Science Course is notable. It is suggested for future studies to test this finding and to do different studies with effective variables on students' metacognitive skills.