A study on the relationship between primary school teachers' attitudes towards science teaching and their students' achievement in science: A case study from Sivas

Science and Technology is a course that is to be given by teachers specialized in that field and who improve themselves constantly and keep up with the latest changes and developments in technology. As is known, expecting success from a teacher in different fields of education is a mistake and these results in failures in the education system. In this study, primary school teachers' attitudes towards science teaching were investigated. In addition, it was aimed to determine the effects of these attitudes on their students' academic achievements in science courses. In this context, survey method was employed. However, the research had also the characteristic of relational screening model because the relationship between the teachers' attitudes and students' academic achievements were investigated in this study. The population of this study consisted of thirty 5th grade teachers from 14 schools in Sivas city centre and 423 students of these teachers. For data analysis, the software programs 'iteman 3.00' and 'SPSS 17' were used. According to the results, a moderate correlation between the teachers' attitudes towards science education and students' achievement was found out. Key Words: Science and technology, science teaching, academic achievement, primary school teacher