Investigation of the project development process of the pupils who attend to the tubitak research project contest: an action research

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the attainments gained by students in the context of the 47. Tubitak High School Research Project Contest via developing their research project preparation skills. In this study, action research is used by an aproach which applicant is a researcher as well. The research process has two dimensions. One dimension is developing the application with the other research project advisor teachers and the other is collecting the data through the aim of this study. The study was conducted with 32 high school students who develop research projects and 8 project advisor teacher. In this qualitative study, data is collected by using observation method and open-ended question forms. By the analysis of the data, it is found that the project development process provides a common researcher identity both for students and advisor teacher by strenghtening the relationship between them, and contributes positively to pupils’ various features such as scientific research skills, curiosity, self reliance, communication skills.