SOURCES OF STRATEGIES EMPLOYED BY 8TH GRADE STUDENTS WHEN SOLVING MULTIPLE CHOICE SCIENCE QUESTIONS

Özet

This study was conducted to reveal the sources of strategies employed by 8^th grade students when solving multiple choice science questions. The holistic multiple-case study, which is one of the qualitative research approaches, was used for this study. A total of eight students, four 8^th grade students from a private secondary school in Kars city center and four 8^th grade students from a public secondary school, voluntarily participated in the study. A total of three questions from the 8^th grade science curriculum, one question each from the units of Electric Charges and Electrical Energy, Matter and Industry, Energy Conversions and Environmental Pollution, were used as the data collection tools of this study. Another data collection tool used in the study was a semi-structured questionnaire. Students solved the questions using Think Aloud Strategy. Problem solving process of the students was observed through camera recordings. This helped to determine the cognitive/meta-cognitive strategies that students employed while solving questions. Subsequently a semi-structured questionnaire was administered to confirm whether the strategies employed while solving the questions were either a cognitive or meta-cognitive strategy and to identify the sources of the strategies (from whom, where and how they learned these strategies). Camera recordings of the question solving processes and the semi-structured interviews were then analyzed. The data were analyzed with a computer program used in the analysis of qualitative research. The results of the research indicated that the sources of cognitive/meta-cognitive strategies employed by students whose 8^th grade science course grade point average (GPA) is "Very Good" and who answered the questions correctly are themselves, the sources of cognitive/meta-cognitive strategies employed by students whose 8^th grade science course GPA is "Good" and who answered the questions correctly were predominantly themselves and rarely their teachers. The sources of cognitive/meta-cognitive strategies employed by students whose 8^th grade science course grade point average is "Average" and who answered the questions wrong were rarely themselves and predominantly their teachers and friends whereas the sources of cognitive/meta-cognitive strategies employed by students whose grade point average were "Poor" and “Very Low (Fail)” and who answered the questions wrong were predominantly their teachers and family (mom, dad, sister, brother).