Abstract:

In the scope of this study, it is aimed to investigate the effect of inquiry based learning with innovative science experiments (ISE) on students' conceptual understanding. The implementation was carried out with an experimental and control group consisting of 7th grade students in a secondary school located in the provincial center of İzmir and lasted 6 weeks. In the experiment group, the plans and the activities based on the inquiry with ISE were applied and in the control group the plans and activities were applied in accordance with the MEB 2013 program. Conceptual Understanding Test (CUT) was formed based on selected TIMSS questions in accordance with the acquisitions of "Force and Energy" unit, consists of open-ended and three-tier test questions which were evaluated separately. At the end of the process, there was no difference for the three-tier test questions. It was found that there was a significant difference in open-ended questions in posttest, in favor of the experimental group. This is due to the fact that the students in the experimental group explained with more examples, gave more supportive and reasoned statements. 

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