Developing worksheet based on science process skills: Factors affecting solubility

Worldwide society is quickly improving and increasing because new ideas are continuously being tested at research institutions or elsewhere. It is impossible for students to grasp all information in any academic discipline. Therefore, teaching how to reach information, instead of teaching all that is known, is common in current educational systems (Ayas, 1995; Varış, 1996; Demirel, 1998; Mallinson & Mallison, 1998).

In our country, the science and technology curriculum aims to educate individuals who are aware of science concepts and principles affecting their life and also conscious of individual and social responsibilities. This goal is within Turkish National Education’s main aims, which was restructured in 2004. When the new science and technology program is examined, it is possible to see that “educating all students to be scientifically literate regardless of their individual differences” is among the most important aims of education. Scientific literacy is defined as developing individuals’ abilities of investigating, questioning, critical thinking, problem solving, decision making, life-long learning, and acquiring a set of abilities, attitude and understanding of science to sustain individuals’ curiosity about their environment and the world (MNE, 2006). Educating scientifically literate individuals, however, is possible not through passing knowledge onto individuals, but through teaching them and enabling them to reach scientific knowledge. In this respect, the place of science process skills is prominent and important to teaching ways of reaching knowledge. The students need the process skills both when doing scientific investigations and during their learning process (Harlen, 2000; Taconis, Ferguson-Hessler & Broekkamp, 2000). For these reasons, students should be informed about the importance of SPS.

Science process skills are (SPS) defined as the adaptation of the skills used by scientists for composing knowledge, thinking of problems and making conclusions. As a society, the goals is for each individual to be scientifically literate (MNE, 2006; Temiz, 2007). Çepni et al. (1997) also defined SPS as facilitating basic activities in regards to learning science, gaining research method and techniques, helping students to be active and to make learning permanent. SPS are classified as basic (observation, testing, classification, relating number with space, and recording data), causal (prediction, determination of variables, and drawing a conclusion) and experimental (making a hypothesis, modeling, doing the experiment, changing and testing the variables, and making a decision) (Ayas et al., 2007; Kanlı & Yağbasan, 2008; http://www.tufts.edu/as/wright_center/products/sci_olympiad/pslsl_training_hammond.pdf ).

SPS ensures that students have the meaningful learning experience. SPS has a great influence on science education because they help students to develop higher mental skills, such as critical thinking, making decision and problem solving (Lee, Hairston, Thames, Lawrence & Herron, 2002; Tan & Temiz, 2003; Arslan & Tertemiz, 2004; Koray, Köksal, Özdemir & Presley, 2007).

Many researchers have investigated studies related to SPS in science education (Lazarowitz & Huppert, 1993; Brotherton & Preece, 1995; Harlen, 1999; Beaumont-Walters & Soyibo, 2001; Huppert, Michal, Lazarowitz, 2002; Tan & Temiz, 2003; Harrell & Bailer, 2004; Saat, 2004; Monhardt & Monhardt, 2006). Some recent studies indicated that the laboratory practices had great influence to increase students SPS (Aydoğdu, 2003; Tatar, Korkmaz & Şaşmaz Ören, 2007; Kanlı & Yağbasan, 2008). What attracts the researchers’ attention is the small number of studies carried out on the SPS of teachers and prospective teachers (Farsakoğlu, et all, 2008; Karslı, Şahin & Ayas, 2009). In their study, Farsakoğlu and others (2008) determined that senior prospective teachers explaining SPS theoretically had difficulties when transferring the theoretical knowledge into the practical applications and confused it with concepts like Bloom’s Taxonomy and Piaget’s Formal Operation Stages. Considering that teachers are the main source in educating individuals, it is inevitable that there is a need for current teachers and prospective teachers to possess SPS.

SPS are used in real life as well as in science. Students are required to explain how real life events occur. SPS involves creativity and critical thinking along with scientific thinking. It is known that those who can think creatively and critically are an important factor in the development of a country. Aktamış and Ergin (2007), aimed to determine the relationship between SPS and scientific creativity, and they found a meaningful correlation between the two. Therefore, it is possible to say that SPS can be thought as a measurement of creativity in making scientific discoveries and contributing to countries’ development. In order to scientifically educate creative individuals, it is necessary to improve students’ SPS. Teachers play an important role for teaching SPS to students through arranging learning activities, determining the development of students’ SPS and teaching how to reach scientific information (Ash, 1993; Harlen, 1999; Bağcı Kılıç, 2003; Arslan & Tertemiz, 2004). PST should be encouraged to design activities aiming to improve their students’ SPS development in the future.

The aim of this study is to develop a worksheet based on science process skills about factors affecting solubility in chemistry laboratory practices. In order to have effective results from laboratory practices, students should benefit from using worksheets. The worksheets are developed to meet needs in the learning environment and also used for different purposes according to researchers’ needs or aims (Kurt 2002, Gönen & Akgün, 2005; Ünal & Ergin, 2006). WSs are also used for teaching science concepts (Coştu, Karataş & Ayas, 2003; Çalık, 2006; Ünal & Ergin, 2006). Some researchers benefit from worksheets improvement of the high and elementary school students’ SPS (Saka, Akdeniz & Enginar, 2002; Dökme & Ozansoy, 2004; Aktamış & Ergin, 2007; Kanlı & Yağbasan, 2008). But WSs were not developed in order to be aware of and improve student teachers' SPS.