Abstract:

Knowing the individual characteristics of students and their differences  constitutes one of the most basic and important elements of the teaching process in an effective and sufficient  teaching.  Furthermore, it is also important  to detemine that knowledge of the ways in which individuals handle information, that is, epistemological beliefs and learning styles. In this research, a total of 370 preservice science teachers, who were enrolled in the science education program at Sakarya University and Atatürk University Faculty of Education, Inquiry skills, epistemological beliefs and  learning styles were examined. Research was conducted using survey model of descriptive research methods . The Scientific Epistemological Beliefs Scale was used to determine the epistemological beliefs, The Kolb Learning Style Inventory was used to determine the learning styles, and the Inquiry Skills Scale was used to determine the inquiry perceptions. As a result, it was determined that there is no significant difference between preservice science teachers’ epistemological beliefs and inquiry skills  in terms of class level and gender variables but  there was a significant difference between the inquiry skills and epistemological beliefs in terms of the university in which they were educated. At the same time, it was determined that inquiry skills of preservice science teachers’ with transformative learning style were significantly higher than  those with other learning styles.

Keywords: