Analysis of problem solving skills of 9th and 12th grade private and public Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School students

The aim of this study is to analyze the problem solving skills of the students of a public vocational and technical Anatolian high school and a private vocational and technical Anatolian High School. In the research, descriptive method was used. The study group of the research consists of students studying at the 9th and 12th grade levels in the 2021-2022 academic year in a private and a state vocational and technical Anatolian high school in Ankara. The data of the research were collected through scenarios and a semi-structured interview form developed by the researcher and the data were evaluated with the rubric developed by the researcher. Quantitative data were analyzed by two-way ANOVA. Content analysis method was used in the analysis of qualitative data. Findings obtained from the quantitative data of the research show that the problem solving scores of State and Private VTHS students do not differ significantly according to grade level, but differ significantly in favor of State VTHS according to school type. The findings obtained from the qualitative data of the research show that 12th grade students of State VTHS reported more positive opinions about the contribution of vocational education than 9th grade students.