The effect of project consultancy education on biology teachers opinions of the nature of scientific research

In this study, the effect of the "Project Consultancy Training Workshop for Biology Teachers" training, prepared with the support of TÜBİTAK-BİDEB 2229 program, on the views of Biology teachers on the nature of scientific research, the change of these opinion in the seven-year period, the scientific studies of the teachers during the process and their opinion on education were investigated. The first part of this research, which consists of two parts; 2013 and 2014 were carried out with 39 teachers who participated in BÖPDEÇ within the scope of TÜBİTAK-BİDEB 2229 Program. In the research, the action research method, which is one of the qualitative research approach, was adopted to get the teachers' views on the nature of scientific research. As a pre-test and a post-test, the Assement of Learners' Views About Scientific Inquiry (VOSI) prepared by Schwartz, Lederman and Lederman (2008), which measures six sub-themes forming the nature of scientific research, was applied to these teachers. The data obtained from Schwartz et al. (2008) based on the codes they created and analyzing the codes determined by three researchers according to the results of the questionnaire, the answers of the teachers were classified in three categories as inadequate, acceptable and knowledgeable. According to the results, the most effective theme in the development of the education program is "The use of different methods in scientific research", "The use of different methods in scientific research", "Research has many purposes", "Justification of scientific knowledge" and "Differences between scientific data and evidence". The sixth theme, that science is the product of a scientific community, has been the least amount of data and least developed theme. In the second part of the research, how the opinions of the teachers participating in the BÖPDEÇ changed in the long term and the effects of the project consultancy training on the scientific studies they carried out during the seven-year period were measured. This section, which adopts the case study method from the qualitative research approach, consists of semi-structured interviews with 13 teachers who participated in the BÖPDEÇ. In the study, VOSI questionnaire was used to get teachers opinions about the nature of scientific research. The data obtained were analyzed by content analysis method based on the codes used in the first section. According to the results obtained in this part of the research, it was determined that there was an increase in the rate of teachers who gave their views on the themes of the nature of scientific research. While "scientific research is directed by questions", "Using different methods in scientific research" was the theme that teachers developed the most opinions after the education. It was determined that teachers' misconceptions continued in the theme of "differences between scientific data and evidence". It was concluded that teachers' misconceptions in the themes of "Using different methods in scientific research" and "Research have many purposes." As in the first part, "Science is the practices of a scientific community" was the theme from which the least data was taken. The semi-structured interview questionnaire "Following the Studies and Teachers' Views after Project Consultancy Training" consisting of four main questions prepared by the researcher to understand the performances of 13 teachers participating in the BÖPDEÇ and the effectiveness of education in these performances was applied. The data obtained were analyzed using the descriptive analysis method and it was determined that all of the interviewed teachers used their experiences in education in their professional lives and in project competitions. This research has revealed that the BÖPDEÇ training has created positive changes in teachers' views on the nature of scientific research and increased their project consultancy experience with the knowledge they gained from education. It is suggested that the Project Consultancy Training be developed in a way that better supports the themes of the nature of scientific research where teachers develop less opinions.