An Artistic Approach to Secondary School Students’ Process of Discovering Scientists: Theatre and Science

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the effects of science theater plays on secondary school students' attitudes towards the subject of science and their views on scientists. The study was conducted with 38 seventh-grade secondary school students over a six-month period. The "Scale of Attitudes Towards the Subject of Science" and the "Opinion Survey About Scientists" were used to collect the quantitative data, and the Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used for the analysis of the obtained data. For the collection of the qualitative data, the compositions written by the students and the researcher's observation notes were used, and the obtained data were subjected to inductive content analysis. In the study, it was concluded that the science theater plays were highly effective in changing secondary school students' attitudes towards the subject of science. On the other hand, it was determined that the activities had no effect on the students' views of scientists. The results obtained from the qualitative data reveal the advantages of science theater plays for students, as well as their contribution to students' personal development. The findings were discussed in the light of the literature and recommendations were made for further research in line with the results.