The effects of the designed laboratory activities on science process skills perceptions and attitudes of science teacher candidates

Researchers in the field of education often emphasize that knowledge will be more permanent with the approach of doing and experiencing. The importance of laboratory use is also better understood in Science Education where theoretical and practical training is taking place. However, the complex structure and differentiation of the problems encountered in the changing and developing world necessitated student centered approaches in education systems and especially in Science Education. The aim of this study is to design chemistry laboratory activities based on constructivist learning theory, to determine the students' scientific process skills and to determine students' hypothesis skills, to examine the students' attitudes towards General Chemistry-I Laboratory course and their perceptions about scientific process skills. In the research, content analyzes were made on the activity forms for the determination of the Scientific Process Skills which were aimed to be gained by the designed activities and these process skills were determined. The research was carried out with 31 students in the department of Science Teaching at Kastamonu University. General Chemistry-I Laboratory courses were conducted for 10 weeks in accordance with constructivist learning theory and based on scientific process skills. After the application, students' hypothesis-building skills were examined in the content analysis conducted on student reports. In addition, the research data were collected through the Perception Scale for Scientific Process Skills (PSSPS) and the Attitude Scale for General Chemistry Laboratory (ASGCL). In the study, pre-test-post-test single-group quasi-experimental design was used and the quantitative data were analyzed by using SPSS statistical package program. As a result of the research, it is seen that the activities developed in terms of gains related to scientific process skills are applicable. According to the findings, it was concluded that the number of students who set up the right hypothesis sentence is more than the number of students who make false hypotheses. Furthermore, it was determined that there was a significant difference between the applied activities and the students' perceptions about general chemistry laboratory attitudes and scientific process skills in favor of the last test.