The effect of science education to the students at the social services and child protection agency (SSCPA) on their attitudes towards science, self-efficacy and motivation

This study investigates the effect of science education to be delivered to the students at the Social Services and Child Protection Agency (SSCPA) on their attitudes towards science, self-efficacy and motivation. As such, written interview questions were developed to measure the students? attitudes, self-efficacy and motivation, and through these questions, students in the secondary school (grades 6 to 8) were interviewed during the pre- and post-interview sessions. Between the pre- and post-interviews, the students were provided with 20 week science education. During the education, the students followed the curriculum through the activities and applications such as open fish jar, word association, concept caricature, play cards of science for children, herringbone, preparing posters, poem-essay writing and brain storming. The research design was determined as the integrated multi-case study, and the interview questions were composed of open-ended items. The interview form included 11 items, and the reliability was determined as between 0,91 and 0,62. The data collected during the pre- and post-interview sessions were subjected to content analysis. The findings showed that the science education provided to the students positively affected the students? attitudes towards science, self-efficacy and motivation. Considering these findings, it is suggested that in order to positively affect attitudes towards science education, increase self-efficacy and motivation, science education be provided to the students starting from the early ages. It is also put forward that students should be encouraged to actively participate in classroom activities and rather than merely theoretical and experimental activities, more importance should be given to the entertaining activities and plays. Moreover, while planning lessons, students? opinions should be taken into consideration so that science education can be more attractive to the students.