Science and technology teachers’ attitudes towards educational research in Turkey

This study reports on the attitudes of science and technology teachers’ towards educational research that were investigated and analyzed with respect to certain demographic variables. The survey method was utilized as the research design. The study group consisted of 918 science and technology teachers working in middle schools in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey. The data were collected using the Likert scale; ‘Teachers Attitude Scale towards Educational Research (TASTER)’. The sub-scales of TASTER included the necessity of educational research, the value of educational research and applicability of educational research. The results of the study showed that female teachers have more positive attitudes towards the applicability of educational research to classroom practice. Valuing educational research and necessity of educational research increases with the number of years of teaching experience. Teachers who graduate from faculties other than education believe in the necessity of educational research more than teachers from education faculties. Furthermore, when compared with the views of teachers working in rural areas those teachers employed in urban areas consider educational research to be more necessary, and teachers with Master’s degrees believe in the applicability of educational research more than teachers with graduate degrees.