The Effect of Science History Applications on Epistemological Beliefs

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of history of science applications used in science courses on the secondary school students’ epistemological beliefs. For this purpose, the study was designed as an experimental study and the pretest posttest control group quasi-experimental model was used. The research was carried out with 197 secondary school students (5th grade=46, 6th grade= 36, 7th grade= 60, 8th grade= 55) at a public school in Sarıyer, İstanbul. The students were randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. While the students in the experimental group were taught science enriched with applications of history of science, the students in the control group were instructed using the teaching methods included in the current program. Before and after the application, the Epistemological Belief Scale was applied in order to collect data. The quantitative data obtained were analyzed statistically. According to the results of the research, changes in epistemological beliefs of secondary school students who were educated by using science history applications were determined in the science course. The relationship between the pre-test post-test scores of the source of the information, the development of the information and the justification of the information, which is the total score and sub-dimensions of the epistemological beliefs scale applied to the experimental group that teaches the science teaching supported by the control and science history practices in which the science teaching methods in the current program are applied within the scope of the research. It was investigated. When the analysis results are examined, it is seen that the pretest scores of the control group s total scores of epistemological beliefs scale are higher than the posttest scores. It is seen that the pretest scores of the epistemological belief scale of the experimental group are higher than the posttest scores. The effect size of the mann whitney u test result, which was made to determine whether the posttest scores of the epistemological beliefs scale differed from the experimental and control groups, was found to be 0.071. In this case, it can be said that the scores of epistemological beliefs scale differ significantly in favor of the experimental group compared to the experimental and control groups. It was found that the posttest scores of the experimental group female students were higher in the total scores of epistemological beliefs scale and in the justification of knowledge sub-dimensions compared to the pre-test scores. Based on these results, in order to contribute positively to the students epistemological beliefs, the history of science should be included more in school textbooks and activities related to the applications of science history should be added to the textbooks.