Examining problems in project work executed in high schools according to student and teacher views

Today, productivity in science and technology is an indicator of the development level of countries. As a result, countries compete with each other to improve their educational systems in order to be successful in this respect. Being productive in science and technology depends on the adoption of scientific thinking and the scientific method as a way of life. In this information era, the basic objective of education in the national curriculum is to equip students with the skills and knowledge of how to reach information instead of simply transmitting information. This new age of information and technology is mainly impacted by the rapid change in science and technology. For this reason, each passing day the importance of science education increases. The aim of science education is to improve students’ scientific process skills and attitudes and make them generate scientific knowledge (Çilenti and Özçelik, 1991). The project-based work executed in schools has an important role in order to make the students acquire fundamental scientific knowledge and skills (Çepni, Ayas, Johnson and Turgut 1997) and apply it to new situations (Solomon, 2003). The project method is a mental and physical activity done in real-life like conditions. It gives students an opportunity to experience the facts in context (Özden, 1998; Raghavan, Coken-Regev and Strobel, 2001), allowing them to work independently and construct their own learning processes, and thus knowledge. The laboratory approach has been used in order to solve real life problems, and thus the project work which includes laboratory activities has gained importance (DeBoer, 1991). Project work is a sign of giving importance to students’ thoughts and interests, and thus, teachers should let students develop their own projects according to their interests. When students realize that teachers value their thoughts, their personal interest and self-confidence will increase, leading to reorganization of their own potential for self learning. Students’ belief that they can learn by themselves is one of the most important aims of science teaching. Executing projects lets students to develop mental correlation to create new knowledge, construct their own knowledge and promotes them to generate and finalize their own products (BIE, 2008; Howe and Jones, 1998).

Korkmaz and Kaptan (2001) considered science projects within three of the following categories:

Construction or Machinery Projects: For example, students focus on an atom model and try to explain the product.
Experimental/Research/Evaluative Projects: Based on theoretically known concepts, but in order to investigate the effects of multiple variables, these experiments or models can be done.
Investigation and Discovery Projects: Students define a problem, suggest possible solutions, try multiple solutions, reach a verdict and share it with others like a scientist.

This study is about research and discovery projects which promote scientific skills to students. Executing projects efficiently depends on the opportunity provided for students to be able to do the project work, that is, the learning setting should be carefully designed for students. The most important behavior developed by students in a suitable project setting is that they are able to decide for themselves. The theoretical knowledge which is learned in school enhances the connection information clusters, generates curiosity and improves skills, therefore, participation results in overall improvement of mental process skills (Özden, 1998). Students can be independent learners with the help of project work by partially transferring the responsibility to the learner. It is important to emphasize the necessity of project work in science especially in physics (Sezgin, Çalışkan, Çallıca and Erol, 2002).

However, literature show that project work is not common in current physics classrooms, and students do not have the expected level of skills and knowledge to execute project work (Akdeniz and Keser, 2000; Akdeniz and Devecioğlu, 2001). Teachers and students are encouraged, especially in science high schools, to design and execute high level project work by the Ministry of National Education (MEB, 1999a). Determining the problems while preparing a project or understanding how project work is conceived is vital in order to generate desired level of project work.

Lack of materials, the university entrance exam, and teachers’ insufficient level of skills were found as the factors that have an effect on the process of project-based work (Akdeniz and Devecioğlu, 2001). Research show that students mainly encounter problems with data analysis, making conclusions, peer cooperation, peer discussion and time management in project basis learning activities (Edelson, Gordon and Pea, 1999; Krajcik et al., 1998; Thomas, 2000). BEST (Board of European Students of Technology) states (2006) the handicaps as:

Ø Projects require suitable space for cooperative work ;

Ø Sufficient funds can be needed;

Ø Evaluation can be a vital problem;

Ø Group members need to be at the same level and accomplishing this situation can be difficult;

Ø Communicative problems;

Ø Length of time;

Ø Group members can be excluded;

Ø Disappointment;

Ø And extra effort should be given by teachers.

An experimental study conducted by Kaptan, Aslan and Atmaca (2002) about primary school students’ problem solving abilities in science showed that the problem solving method was successful, particularly from the perspective of real and permanent learning. Kaptan and Korkmaz (2002) carry out similar research with science student teachers. Their study illustrated that lessons problem solving methods used increased the student teachers’ problem solving skills.

It is important to do research about how schools, teachers and students manage project work and which issues arise from the practice in order to take precautions for the possible disadvantages of project-based learning. Continually encountering similar problems could eventually can make students reluctant to do project work, which could pose a serious threat to science education. It is well-known from the literature that project-based learning is rare in secondary physics classrooms. Therefore, the importance of this study is to find out why the project work cannot be done as desired, which issues need to be tackled and how to solve the encountered problems during the project-based work. It is believed that finding answers to these basic questions might help teachers, and thus students, to find ways to accomplish their tasks in practicing this valuable learning approach.

The aim of this study is to understand the issues that arise from project-based learning and the problems encountered during the project work from the participating teachers’ and students’ point of view. The study seeks to find answers to the following questions: who decides the project topics and problems?; do the schools have enough materials and suitable environment to execute the project work?; do the participants have the knowledge and skills to execute project work?; what are the problems they faced and at which stage(s) of project work did they have difficulties?; what are their suggestions to make a real improvement in doing project work as desired?