Özet:

This study aims to investigate chemistry teachers’ use of laboratories. Case study, which is one of the qualitative research designs, has been used in the study. The sample of the study consists of 17 chemistry teachers teaching a provincial center in the Marmara region. A semi-structured interview was conducted with the teachers as the data-collecting instrument. Then the data collected was subjected to content analysis and the teachers’ opinions were presented descriptively. The results of the study suggest that consumable chemical materials in the laboratories are expired and insufficient, there are not enough devices necessary for experiments and the teachers do not do most of the experiments in the chemistry curriculum despite the fact that there is a sufficient number of experiment activities in the curriculum. The teachers asserted that the reasons for their not doing the experiments were not being able to allocate enough time for experiments because of the density of the curriculum and prioritizing solving questions as the current educational system focuses on achievement in exams. The teachers think that they have adequate knowledge and experience to do the experiments, the experiments make the students more interested in the lessons and learning is more effective using experiments. On the other hand, the teachers are of the opinion that classroom management is more difficult in laboratories and students act frivolously. The teachers suggest that a separate application course in which only experiments will be done should be established in order for the laboratories to be used more effectively.

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