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An Assessment of Factors Related to Science Achievement of

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DOI: 10.1080/09500690801992888

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An Assessment of Factors Related

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Ilker Kalender & Giray Berberoglu
a
Department of Secondary Science and Mathematics Education ,
Middle East Technical University , Ankara, Turkey
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to Science Achievement of Turkish Students, International Journal of Science Education, 31:10,
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 International Journal of Science Education
Vol. 31, No. 10, 1 July 2009, pp. 1379–1394

RESEARCH REPORT

An Assessment of Factors Related

to Science Achievement of
Turkish Students
Ilker Kalender and Giray Berberoglu*
Department of Secondary Science and Mathematics Education, Middle East Technical
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University, Ankara, Turkey

0giray@metu.edu.tr
00
Prof.
000002008
GirayBerberoglu
International
10.1080/09500690801992888
TSED_A_299454.sgm
0950-0693
Research
Taylor
2008 andReport
& Francis
(print)/1464-5289
Francis
Journal of Science
(online)
Education

In this study, a hypothesised model with latent variables such as socio-economic status, students’
perception of success and interest in different subject matter areas, out-of-school activities, and
classroom teaching learning activities in relation to science achievement of the students was tested
via linear structural modelling. The data come from the Student Assessment Program—2002
conducted by the Ministry of National Education in Turkey. The results obtained in a sample of
29,911 students indicated that there were positive relationships between the socio-economic status
of the students and teacher-centred activities in the classroom with science achievement. On the
other hand, student-centred activities did not contribute to explain achievement measures
positively. There is a need to scrutinise the quality of student-centred activities in Turkey.

Introduction
In today’s world, one of the key indicators of educational performance as an end
product is students’ achievement level in various subject matter areas. Among them,
science achievement is given a special emphasis by education policy-makers, since it
deals with the concepts and principles that are required for a technologically
equipped and developed society. Science curriculum of a country deals not only with
knowledge acquisition, but also process skills such as inquiry, critical-thinking,
problem-solving, and decision-making (Ministry of National Education of Turkey
[MONE], 2005). Thus, demand for assessing scientific knowledge and skills of the
students has increased tremendously within the past decade as evidenced by the
international studies such as the Third International Mathematics and Science
Study and the Program for International Student Assessment. The data obtained

*Corresponding author. Orta Dogu Teknik Universitesi, Egitim Fakultesi, Ortaogretim Fen ve
Matematik Alanlari Egitimi Bolumu, Ankara 06531, Turkey. Email: giray@metu.edu.tr

ISSN 0950-0693 (print)/ISSN 1464-5289 (online)/09/101379–16

© 2009 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/09500690801992888
 1380 I. Kalender and G. Berberoglu

from these large-scale assessment programmes provide information for the partici-
pating countries in comparison with international criteria. Besides the international
studies, country-specific assessment programmes at different grade levels and
subject matter areas are also conducted at the national level on larger samples with
special emphasis given to curriculum-specific learning outcomes. The MONE in
Turkey conducted a large-scale study named the Student Assessment Program—
2002 (SAP-2002) in collaboration with the Directorate of Educational Research and
Development Division, for the purpose of benchmarking students learning at
primary education level across different grade levels and subject matter areas
(MONE, 2002). Among the other subject matter areas, science draws the attention
of educators, since in general a very low achievement level in this particular area has
already been known by the stakeholders in education sector for many years. In this
assessment programme, a student questionnaire was also used to collect information
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about student demographic characteristics, interests, and school-related learning

activities and out-of-school activities.
Within this comprehensive assessment framework it is thought that combining the
information obtained on the questionnaire data with the science achievement of the
students may provide some valuable information for the education policy-makers in
Turkey. Actually, the factors that are related to science achievement of the students
have been the major concern of many researchers in the related literature. Among
them the socio-economic status as defined by parental education and occupation,
peer socio-economic status, and so on, seems to be the most important variable
related to the science achievement (Caldas & Bankston, 1997, 2001, 2003; Fouad &
Smith, 1996; Rumberger & Willms as cited in Caldas & Bankston, 2001). There are
also some research studies about instructional practices used in the classroom in
relation to science achievement (Hayes, 1998; House, 2000; Huffman & Lawrenz,
2001; Lokan, Greenwood, & Cresswell, 2001; Siller as cited in Hayes, 1998),
besides the impact of affective variables such as science interest, motivation towards
science, and so forth, on students’ learning (Jinks & Morgan, 1999; Onwumere,
2003; Paolucci, 2001; Tamir, 1989).
One of the widely used methods to investigate relationships of different factors
with the science achievement is linear structural modelling based on the large-scale
data-sets (Guzel & Berberoglu, 2005; Papanastasiou & Zembylas, 2004; Singh,
Granville, & Dika, 2002; Smyth, 2001; Yayan & Berberoglu, 2004). The advantage
of modelling studies lies in its compact nature, through which inter-relations among
several variables can be analysed simultaneously.
In the present study, a linear structural model will be tested based on the data
collected on the science achievement test and the student questionnaire at Grades 6,
7, and 8 in the SAP-2002 conducted by the MONE in Turkey. A hypothesised
model with the latent variables including socio-economic variables, students’
perception of success and interest in different subject matter areas, out-of-school
activities, and classroom teaching learning activities will be tested. It is expected that
the findings of the present study may initiate some education policy decisions to
enhance the quality of educational practices in Turkey.
 Factors Related to Science Achievement of Turkish Students 1381

Method
Sample
The sample in SAP-2002 consisted of 10,285 students in the sixth-grade level, 9,969
in the seventh-grade level, and 9,657 students in the eighth-grade level. In the total
sample, 16,777 students are male and 13,134 students are female. In the survey, a
total of 29,911 students answered all the questionnaire and test items administered.
The sampling of the assessment programme was carried out by the MONE. In the
sampling process, students were selected in a stratified sample design from seven
geographical regions. Schools were randomly selected from each region considering
the total number of students and their weights in the total population. For each
school, the classrooms were randomly selected at the three grade levels. The
students in the selected classrooms responded to both the achievement tests and the
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student questionnaire. Schools included in the sample are state primary schools,
primary regional boarding schools, and private primary school. In the whole sample,
85.4% of the students are from state primary schools. The rest are from regional
boarding and private schools with ratios of 7.9% and 6.6%, respectively. The sample
represents the distribution ratios of the school types in the whole Turkish population
in the respective grade levels.

Instruments
In the SAP-2002 an achievement test with different test batteries and a student
questionnaire were used. These instruments were developed by the MONE experts.
The average response rates were 98.53% for the science test and 99.1% for the
student questionnaire.
The achievement test consisted of four batteries such as Turkish, social sciences,
mathematics, and natural sciences. In the present study only the natural sciences test
was used. In this particular test there are 20 questions at each grade level. Thus, for
the three grade levels a total of 60 questions was used to assess science achievement
of the students. The questions are all in multiple-choice format with four alterna-
tives. These questions were selected as a result of a pilot study conducted by the
MONE. In general, the natural science subtest measures conceptual understandings
of the students in line with the national curriculum. Across the grade levels, tests
have similar content with different test items. Across the grade levels, the natural
sciences subtest measures ability to identify relationships among science concepts, to
transform information from one format into another, to infer about a scientific
observation, to predict based on a scientific observation, and to solve simple
algorithmic routine science problems. Table 1 presents the sample items used across
different grade levels with the answer key, item difficulty index (p), and biserial
correlation coefficient (rbis).
The student questionnaire consisted of 58 items about student demographic char-
acteristics, interests, school-related learning activities, and out-of-school activities.
Among them, 26 items were selected for the path analytic model to be tested in the
 1382 I. Kalender and G. Berberoglu

Table 1. Sample items from the three grade levelsa

A student observes cheek epithelial cells and onion membrane in a microscope. Which one of the
followings cannot be learned as a result of this observation?
(A) properties of a plant cell
(B) properties of an animal cell
(C) the differences between a plant and an animal cells
(D) the amount of oxygen consumed by the cells in a unit time
(Correct answer: D)
p = 0.52, rbis = 0.34
Infer about a scientific observation (Grade level 6)
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Potential energy is related to the height of an object with reference to the earth.
In which cabin of the ferris wheel potential energy of a child is the lowest?
(A) 1
(B) 2
(C) 3
(D) 4
(Correct answer: D)
p = 0.52, rbis = 0.44
Infer about a scientific observation (Grade level 7)

In the figure there is a burning candle in an isolated glass bell jar.

Which one of the following will burn the candle more if it is put in the glass bell jar?
 Factors Related to Science Achievement of Turkish Students 1383

Table 1. (Continued)
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(Correct answer: A)
p = 0.52, rbis = 0.49
Predict based on a scientific observation (Grade level 8)

aItems were administered in the Turkish language.

 1384 I. Kalender and G. Berberoglu

present study by the authors of this paper. The item selection process for the student
questionnaire is explained in the following section.

Preliminary Analyses for the Instruments

In this study, questionnaire items related to socio-economic status, out-of-school
activities, time spent for homework, interest and perception of success towards
mathematics and science, and instructional activities dimensions were used. Each
item in the student questionnaire was designed to assess aforementioned conceptual
dimensions. The selection of the items for the further analyses based on two criteria.
First the content of the item should reflect the general trait considered in each of the
dimension. Second, at least four items were selected from each dimension to form
the latent variable (Jöreskog & Sörbom, 1999). Thus, a total of 26 items was selected
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by the researchers to confirm the latent variables.

The questionnaire items ‘Mother’s education level’, ‘Father’s education level’,
‘Number of siblings at home’, ‘How many books do you possess at home?’, ‘Do you
have a dishwasher at home?’, ‘Do you have a separate table for studying at home?’,
and ‘Do you have a separate room for studying at home?’ were used to define the
Socio-economic Status latent variable. The first two questions in this dimension were
responded to on a five-point scale where 1 stands for illiterate and 5 stands for
university level. The number of books at home was evaluated on a five-point scale
with 1 representing 0–10 books and 5 representing 200 books and above. The rest of
the items were answered on a ‘yes’ and ‘no’ basis (1 = yes and 0 = no).
Items asking for the frequency of ‘Presentations delivered by students in the class-
room’, ‘Students discuss among themselves in the classroom’, ‘Teacher discusses
questions with students in the classroom’, ‘Teacher distributes worksheets in the
classroom’, ‘Group work carried out in the classroom’, ‘Technological supplemen-
tary teaching materials used during the lesson (OHP, slides, computers)’, and
‘Experiments conducted by students’ were used to define the Student-centred Activi-
ties latent variable. Items asking for the frequency of ‘Lectures given by teacher’,
‘Examples and exercises are carried out during lesson’, ‘Teacher provides daily life
examples related to subject matter in the classroom’, ‘Use of suitable supplementary
teaching materials in the classroom for students to master the subject matter’, and
‘Experiments conducted by teacher’ were used to define the Teacher-centred Activities
latent variable. In these two dimensions, items were responded on a four-point scale
where 1 = none and 4 = frequently. The items asking for the frequency of ‘Reading
newspaper, magazine, books outside school’, ‘Studying and researching at library’,
‘Time spent for home-work’, and ‘Studying school subjects’ were used to define the
Out-of-school Activities latent variable. These questions were responded to on a five-
point scale where 1 = none and 5 = more than 5 hours per week.
The last factor in the study, which was labelled Interest and Perception of Success in
Science and Mathematics, included the items that asked for the students’ self-
perceptions about their success and their interest in two major academic areas
taught in the school, such as science and mathematics. ‘How successful are you in
 Factors Related to Science Achievement of Turkish Students 1385

science?’, ‘How successful are you in mathematics?’, ‘How interested are you in
science?’, and ‘How interested are you in mathematics?’ were the four questions
included for this particular latent variable. Considering the strong relationships
reported between self-concept and motivation variables from the literature (Skaalvik
& Rankin, 1995) and the correlations of 0.56 and 0.51 found in the data of the
present study between interest and perception of success items in the mathematics
and science areas, respectively, these four items were defined under the same latent
variable. These items were also rated on a four-point scale where for the interest
questions 1 = not interested and 4 = very interested, and for the perception of success
questions 1 = very unsuccessful and 4 = very successful.
For the purpose of validating the conceptually constituted latent variables above,
confirmatory factor analysis was carried out via LISREL (Jöreskog & Sörbom, 1999).
This analysis was actualised for each grade level separately. The goodness of fit index
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(GFI), the adjusted goodness of fit index (AGFI), the root mean square error of
approximation (RMSEA), and the standardised root mean square residual (S-RMR)
were used to evaluate the fit of the models (Browne & Cudeck, 1993; Gerbing &
Anderson, 1993; Jöreskog & Sörbom, 1993; Kelloway, 1998; Schumacker & Lomax,
1996). Criteria for a good fit were defined as values above 0.90 for the GFI and AGFI
and values below 0.05 for the RMSEA and S-RMR.
Table 2 presents the fit indexes obtained by confirmatory factor analyses
conducted at each grade level separately.
The indexes obtained for the confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the
conceptual framework proposed for the latent variable model is defensible.
The Cronbach alpha reliabilities of the latent variables are 0.750, 0.679, 0.631,
0.575, and 0.616 for the sixth-grade level, 0.753, 0.692, 0.710, 0.572, and 0.617 for
the seventh-grade level, and 0.754, 0.680, 0.694, 0.538, and 0.607 for the eight-grade
level in the Socio-economic Status, Out-of-school Activities, Interest and Perception of
Success towards Science and Mathematics, Teacher-centred Activities, and Student-centred
Activities dimensions, respectively.
In the present study, the science achievement latent variable was defined by using
all the items in the science achievement tests as observed variables for each grade level.
The principle component analysis of the items indicated that the science achieve-
ment tests measure a unidimensional trait at each grade level. The first two eigenval-
ues provided the strongest evidence for the unidimensionality of the scale, since a
very sharp drop was observed between the eigenvalues of the first and second
Table 2. Goodness-of-fit indices for the confirmatory factor analyses

Index Grade 6 Grade 7 Grade 8

GFI 0.96 0.96 0.94

AGFI 0.95 0.95 0.93
SRMR 0.039 0.040 0.048
RMSEA 0.043 0.044 0.051
90% confidence interval for RMSEA (0.042; 0.044) (0.042; 0.046) (0.050; 0.052)
 1386 I. Kalender and G. Berberoglu

factors. The first two eigenvalues are 2.931 and 1.159 in Grade 6, 2.940 and 1.194
in Grade 7, and 3.363, and 1.123 in Grade 8. The confirmatory factor analysis also
indicated that the science tests fit a one-dimensional model as evidenced by the
reasonable fit indexes obtained in LISREL across the grade levels. Fit indices
obtained are GFI = 0.96, AGFI = 0.95, SRMR = 0.039, RMSEA = 0.043 for
the sixth grade, GFI = 0.96, AGFI = 0.95, SRMR = 0.040, RMSEA = 0.044 for the
seventh grade, and GFI = 0.94, AGFI = 0.93, SRMR = 0.048, RMSEA = 0.051 for
the eighth grade. The achievement tests used in this study have the reliabilities of
0.67, 0.68 and 0.73 for Grade 6, Grade 7, and Grade 8, respectively.

The Model
In the model, the impacts of Socio-economic Status, Student-centred Activities, Teacher-
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centred Activities and Out-of-school Activities on ‘Interest and Perception of Success’

and ‘Science Achievement’ were tested. Meantime, the relationship between Interest
and Perception of Success and Science Achievement was also considered. Science
Achievement and the Interest and Perception of Success are endogenous variables,
and all the other latent variables are exogenous in the model tested.
For testing the proposed model, covariance matrixes were generated using
PRELIS across sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade levels separately. The model
explained above was tested for each grade level separately.
Significance of the path coefficients was tested through t-tests. For interpreting
magnitudes of the path coefficients, criteria proposed by Cohen were used. Cohen
(as cited in Kline, 1998) stated a classification for standardised path coefficients for
interpreting the effect sizes of the relationships. Absolute values less than 0.10 are
considered small, absolute values around 0.30 are considered medium, and absolute
values greater than 0.50 are considered large effect sizes.
Maximum likelihood estimation was used for estimating parameters of the models.

Results
Path coefficients obtained across the grade levels are presented on the same path
diagram in Figure 1. The coefficients given on the diagram are in the order of the
sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade levels, respectively. Deleted paths due to non-signif-
icant values are indicated by a minus sign. The t value of each coefficient is also
provided in parentheses in Figure 1.
The majority of the coefficients in the models were found significant. The path
Figure 1. Structural model of science achievement for grade levels. Note: SES, Socio-economic Status; STUD_CEN, Student-centred Activities; TEAC_CEN, Teacher-centred Activities; OUT_SCH, Out-of-school Activities; INT_SUCC, Interest and Perception of Success towards Science and Mathematics .

coefficients from socio-economic status to students’ science achievement are significant

with medium effect sizes (0.35, 0.33, and 0.38 for Grades 6, 7, and 8, respectively).
The path coefficients from teacher-centred activities to science achievement are all
significant with medium effect sizes (0.39, 0.30, and 0.30 for Grades 6, 7, and 8, respec-
tively). However, coefficients from student-centred activities to science achievement
are significant but negative with medium effect sizes (−0.41, −0.30, and −0.29 for
Grades 6, 7, and 8, respectively).
 Factors Related to Science Achievement of Turkish Students 1387
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Figure 1. Structural model of science achievement for grade levels showing path coefficients.
Note: SES, Socio-economic Status; STUD_CEN, Student-centred Activities; TEAC_CEN, Teacher-
centred Activities; OUT_SCH, Out-of-school Activities; INT_SUCC, Interest and Perception of Success
towards Science and Mathematics. Each set of path coefficients is listed in order from grades 6–8;
t values are shown in parentheses.

In Grades 6 and 7, even though out-of-school activities does not indicate a significant
direct effect on science achievement, its indirect effect over interest and perception of
success is significant. For Grade 8, its indirect effect over interest and perception of
success is 0.16, which is higher than its direct effect on science achievement.
Goodness-of-fit indexes and total variance explained for each grade level are
presented in Table 3.
In general, across the grade levels there are similar patterns obtained in line with
the magnitudes of the path coefficients. All of the exogenous variables except out-of-
school activities are related with the achievement latent variable. On the other hand,
 1388 I. Kalender and G. Berberoglu

Table 3. Goodness-of-fit indices and total variance explained for the path analytic model

Index Grade 6 Grade 7 Grade 8

GFI 0.95 0.94 0.94

AGFI 0.94 0.94 0.93
SRMR 0.034 0.037 0.040
RMSEA 0.034 0.036 0.038
90% confidence interval for RMSEA (0.034; 0.035) (0.036; 0.037) (0.038; 0.039)
% variance explained 0.47 0.40 0.44

when interest and perception of success dimension was considered an exogenous

variable, teacher-centred activities and out-of-school activities indicated significant
relationship with this particular variable as well across the grade levels.
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Table 4 indicates the LISREL estimates, standard errors, and t values obtained for
each grade level.

Discussion
In this study, some selected student-related factors were considered in order to
explain the science achievement of the students across different grade levels within
the framework of linear structural modelling. In general, a similar structure was
obtained in the path analysis with latent variables models across all grade levels.
Among the selected variables, socio-economic status indicated a strong relation-
ship with the science achievement across all grade levels as expected. When the
observed variables are considered for this particular latent variable, it is seen that this
effect basically comes from parental education level and the facilities at home. The
effect of socio-economic status on achievement measure has frequently been
reported in the related literature (Caldas & Bankston, 1997, 2001; Rumberger &
Willms as cited in Caldas & Bankston, 2001). In general these studies indicated that
families from higher socio-economic status tend to be more interested in their
children’s homework, courses, grades, school, and/or peer problems, and so on. As a
result, a higher achievement in the school subjects is obtained (Muller & Kerbow as
cited in Schiller, Khmelkov, & Wang, 2002). In addition, those families may have
better opportunities for their children such as private tutoring, computers, and
educational materials, and a higher education level that may cause to transmit their
experiences to their children (Baker & Stevenson, 1986).
The important finding of the present study is about the classroom activities that
are used in Turkish schools. As was explained above, classroom activities were
grouped under two latent variables in the model tested. When the observed variables
of teacher-centred activities are closely evaluated, it is clearly seen that the question-
naire items are implying an interactive teacher model in the classroom who strives
for teaching through lecturing, problem-solving activities, science experiments, and
with daily life examples of the science concepts. This interactive teacher model
seems successful in enhancing students’ achievement level as evidenced by the
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Table 4. LISREL estimates, t values, and standard errors (SE) for science achievement model across grade levels

Grade 6 Grade 7 Grade 8

Latent variable
Observed variable Lambda t value SE Lambda t value SE Lambda t value SE

Socio-economic Status (SES)

Mother’s education level 0.73 77.80 0.01 0.71 73.90 0.01 0.72 74.34 0.01
Father’s education level 0.70 73.63 0.01 0.72 75.43 0.01 0.72 75.16 0.01
How many books do you possess at home 0.76 83.96 0.01 0.78 85.25 0.01 0.78 83.41 0.01
Do you have dishwasher at home? 0.69 73.83 0.01 0.70 74.21 0.01 0.69 71.89 0.01
Do you have a separate table for studying at home? 0.67 70.40 0.01 0.65 66.98 0.01 0.67 68.22 0.01
Do you have a separate room for studying at home 0.57 57.17 0.01 0.58 57.65 0.01 0.60 59.58 0.01
Student-centred Activities (STUD_CEN)
Presentations delivered by students in the classroom 0.28 24.39 0.01 0.30 26.09 0.01 0.26 22.42 0.01
Students discuss among themselves in the classroom 0.53 48.69 0.01 0.54 49.65 0.01 0.52 46.18 0.01
Teacher discusses questions with students in the classroom 0.51 46.94 0.01 0.57 52.02 0.01 0.52 46.73 0.01
Teacher distributes worksheets in the classroom 0.50 46.34 0.01 0.51 46.06 0.01 0.51 45.10 0.01
Group work carried out in the classroom 0.49 45.10 0.01 0.48 42.96 0.01 0.50 43.55 0.01
Technological supplementary teaching materials are used 0.48 44.13 0.01 0.45 40.55 0.01 0.49 44.18 0.01
during the lesson (OHP, slides, computers)
Experiments are conducted by students 0.45 40.44 0.01 0.45 39.82 0.01 0.48 43.18 0.01
Teacher-centred Activities (TEAC_CEN)
Lectures given by teacher 0.37 32.87 0.01 0.36 31.61 0.01 0.30 25.34 0.01
Examples and exercises are carried out during lesson 0.53 49.45 0.01 0.53 47.80 0.01 0.49 43.02 0.01
Teacher provides daily life examples related to subject 0.55 51.53 0.01 0.52 47.37 0.01 0.50 44.21 0.01
matter in the classroom
Use of suitable supplementary teaching materials in the 0.64 60.94 0.01 0.66 61.00 0.01 0.65 58.22 0.01
classroom for students to master the subject matter
Experiments are conducted by teacher 0.38 33.80 0.01 0.38 33.95 0.01 0.41 35.73 0.01
Factors Related to Science Achievement of Turkish Students 1389
 Downloaded by [Bilkent University] at 23:41 23 April 2015

Table 4. (Continued)

Grade 6 Grade 7 Grade 8

Latent variable
Observed variable Lambda t value SE Lambda t value SE Lambda t value SE

Out-of-school Activities (OUT_SCH)

Reading newspaper, magazine, books outside school 0.65 63.73 0.01 0.64 63.98 0.01 0.62 61.30 0.01
Time spent for home-work 0.71 70.32 0.01 0.75 78.02 0.01 0.67 66.09 0.01
Studying school subjects 0.74 74.24 0.01 0.80 83.46 0.01 0.84 86.73 0.01
Studying and researching at library 0.37 34.40 0.01 0.37 34.38 0.01 0.33 30.54 0.01
Interest and Perception of Success (INT_SUCC)
How interested are you in mathematics? 0.56 – – 0.72 – – 0.67 – –
1390 I. Kalender and G. Berberoglu

How interested are you in science? 0.52 26.12 0.02 0.56 30.12 0.02 034 28.70 0.02
How successful do you in math? 0.58 44.04 0.01 0.77 58.51 0.01 0.52 58.39 0.01
How successful do you in science? 0.61 28.01 0.02 0.63 33.43 0.02 0.67 31.46 0.02
 Factors Related to Science Achievement of Turkish Students 1391

significant path coefficients across all grade levels although its contribution to
achievement slightly drops as the grade level increases. When the total effect of this
latent variable is considered in the models, the greatest contribution on achievement
is observed with the 0.50 path coefficient at the sixth-grade level.
On the contrary, student-centred classroom activities, such as student presenta-
tions, discussions, and group work, among the students seem ineffective in improv-
ing learning in science as evidenced by negative path coefficients obtained across all
grade levels. This finding seems unusual when the teaching methodologies were
considered in this particular variable, but it is not completely unexpected when the
findings of similar studies are considered. The negative relations were reported
between achievement and student-centred activities in the literature (House, 2001;
Leung, 2002; Lokan et al., 2001; Pelgrum & Plomp, 2002; Yayan & Berberoğlu, gb
ev[]r

2004). The negative impact of this particular variable is greatest at Grade 6. As the
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grade level increases, the path coefficients slightly drop. These activities do not have
negative impact only on science achievement but on the interest and perception of
success dimension as well at Grades 6 and 8. As the classroom becomes more
student centred, students not only underachieve the science concepts but also lose
their interest about the subject matter and feel academically unsuccessful. The
negative relation implies an unstructured and vague classroom environment in
which, without teacher support in relation to learning, students may lose their atten-
tion on the subject matter and become less confident. When the relationship of
teacher-centred activities with the interest and perception of success latent variable
is considered, it is observed that especially for younger students (sixth-grade level)
the teacher is an important factor to enhance interest and self-confidence. When a
teacher becomes more reverted, as implied in the student-centred activities, students
might lose their interest and self-confidence.
In general, discussion and independent group work are the two basic strategies
implied in the student-centred activities latent variable. Teachers who are accus-
tomed to traditional teaching methodologies might find the student-centred activi-
ties more elaborate to conduct. Discussions without a meaningful and stimulating
question or group work and science experiments without a structured guidance and
active participation of all the group members might not help develop conceptual
understanding in students. Moreover, these activities require different and demand-
ing teacher qualifications. If the classroom environment is structured for the teach-
ers, they become more efficient in developing conceptual understanding in students.
If the classroom environment is basically oriented towards unstructured discussions
and student-centred experiments, teachers might not be able to manage the learning
environment to foster students’ understanding. Two typical items with similar
content from different latent variables imply a non-structured nature of student-
centred classroom activities in Turkish schools. These items are ‘Teacher conducts
experiments’ in the teacher-centred activities dimension and ‘Students conduct
experiments’ in the student-centred activities dimension. As was explained before,
the former indicated a positive relation with the achievement via the latent variable
to which it belongs, whereas the latter had a negative impact. As teachers let
 1392 I. Kalender and G. Berberoglu

students carry out an experiment by themselves, this does not contribute to

developing conceptual understanding. On the other hand, if the teacher conducts an
experiment as a demonstration, then it ought to be structured and goal oriented—
and it somehow helps students master the concepts and principles of this subject
matter area.
The interest and perception of success latent variable has path coefficients with
medium effect sizes with the science achievement in all grade levels. Paolucci (2001)
reported that there was a high relationship between science interests and science and
mathematics achievement. The study of Jinks and Morgan (1999) revealed that
there was a positive relationship between students’ science grades and the sense of
academic efficacy. As the literature supports the findings of the present study, it is
obviously seen that the most important factor for improving this affective variable is
the teacher in the Turkish educational system, as evidenced by the positive path
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coefficient between this particular variable and the teacher-centred activities across
all grade levels.
Another finding of the study is related to the indirect effect of out-of-school activ-
ities on science achievement. The questions in this particular latent variable imply a
dedicated and independent student who reads and studies school subjects outside
the school. As a consequence, their science scores are higher than those of the
students who do not pay much attention on school-related activities outside
the school. Students who devote more time on outside school activities have a high
level of interest and positive perceptions about their academic success as evidenced
by the positive path coefficients of this particular variable with the interest and
perception of success latent variable. However, the relation of this latent variable
with the interest and perception of success dimension increases slightly as the grade
level increases. It could be said that activities considered in this latent variable is
more effective for the older students.
Apart from socio-economic status, this study indicated that what teachers do in
the classroom is one of the most important factors at schools to enhance learning in
science. This is consistent across all the grade levels.
More specifically, the following conclusions could be drawn from the results of the
present study.
(1) Teacher-centred activities imply an active teacher model who tries to foster
learning in the classroom with experiments, daily life examples, exercises, and so
forth. This model is successful not only to enhance learning, but also to improve
students’ interest and perception of success positively.
(2) Spending time on school-related activities outside the school has small but
positive indirect impact on science achievement.
(3) Student-centred activities have no positive relation with both achievement and
students’ interest and perception of success.
As a result, the policy-makers in the Turkish educational system should consider
teaching methodologies carried out in the classrooms across the country. As
evidenced by the findings of the present study, there is a need to pervade an active
 Factors Related to Science Achievement of Turkish Students 1393

teacher model in the Turkish schools. On the other hand, there is a need to analyse
classroom environment in terms of effective student-centred classroom activities.
The results should not be interpreted as giving up the student-centred activities in
the classroom; rather, there is a need to initiate more in-depth analyses of these
activities as they are being used in schools in a way to enhance the quality of them
via improving teachers’ qualifications and classroom management skills.

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