Abstract

Problem Based Learning (PBL), which is one of the teaching methods that the students actively participates in the education process and learns through research, enables students to produce versatile solutions in the problem solving process, and gives them the ability to deal with the problems they may encounter in real life. The purpose of this research is to determine the effect of problem-based learning method on the scientific process skills, scientific attitudes and academic achievement of 7th grade students in the example of the Light unit. The research was carried out by designing according to the semi-experimental model with pre and post-test control groups. The study group of the research consists of 82 seventh grade students studying in the Atatürk Secondary School in Çorlu district of Tekirdağ province in 2013-2014 academic year. The classes were randomly assigned as the experimental and the control group. While the light unit in the experimental group was conducted using the PBL method, the 7th grade science course was taught using the textbook in the control group. The application of the study lasted 20 hours in total for 5 weeks. In the research, scientific process evaluation test, scientific attitude scale and academic achievement test were used as pre and post-tests as data collection tools. T-test was performed in places where there was normality, and Mann-Whitney U test in places where it did not meet. Based on the statistical analysis of the data obtained, it was seen that PBL method has a positive effect on students’ scientific process skills and academic achievement. In terms of scientific attitude, there was no statistically significant difference between experiment and control groups.