Students’ Views on Laboratory Applications: Izmir Sample

Abstract

The purpose of this survey study was to reveal secondary school students’ views about to what extent science labs are in use, labs and chemistry teachers are prepared for applying revised chemistry curriculum based on constructivism at secondary schools. 2289 secondary school students from various school types and grades who had chemistry course were administered “The Student Demographics Form” and “The Questionnaire for Views on Lab Applications” (QVLA) in 2008-2009 academic year in Izmir. The students reported that no extra lesson for making experiment was scheduled; they were not informed about the experiments before performing them and although the teacher controlled each step of the experiments, lab applications were not a part of the course assesment. They also reported that the experiments were consistent with the lesson content; they made experiments consciously
in secure lab settings and discussed the results of experiments with their chemistry teacher. Further analysis were conducted according to school type, grade and gender and the results were discussed accordingly.