Out-of-School Learning Studies for Science Education: A Metasynthesis Study

Abstract

In the recent coronavirus epidemic, which has become a global problem in a short time, the number of cases worldwide has exceeded 470 million, while the number of deaths has exceeded 6 million. This situation, which negatively affects many areas of life, also negatively affected the teachers and students who make up the human dimension of education. This extraordinary situation and the rapidly developing technology highlight the necessity of out-of-school learning in science education. Based on this idea, the study aimed to examine the postgraduate theses and articles that included out-of-school learning in science education published in Turkey and internationally between the years 2016-2021. Many national and international databases such as Higher Education Council (YÖK) National Thesis Center, TR-Dizin, Proquest Dissertations and Thesis Abst&FT and Google Academic, Scholar Works, Eric, Science Direct were used to collect the data of the study, which was conducted with meta-synthesis, one of the qualitative research designs. In line with the aim of the study, a total of 106 studies were reached, with 64 studies conducted in Turkey and 42 studies conducted in the international arena. Studies in meta-synthesis of theses and articles; type, year, research method, design, study group or sample, sampling methods, data collection tools, data analysis methods and subject areas were taken into consideration. Obtained findings are presented with figures and tables. The studies conducted in Turkey are mostly in the type of articles, increased after the Covid-19 outbreak and predominantly the quantitative method is preferred; It has been determined that international studies are in the type of articles, increase before the epidemic, and mostly the quantitative method is preferred. In terms of study groups, it has been determined that the participant group is students in studies conducted both in Turkey and internationally, purposeful sampling type is used in determining the study groups, and the sample size is concentrated between 1-50. It has been determined that the subject of the study is to determine an opinion in the studies conducted in Turkey and included in the research, and the effect on learning in the studies conducted internationally and included in the research. It has been seen that the data of the studies conducted in Turkey were mainly collected by interview form and analyzed by content analysis, but the data of the studies in the international field were collected through questionnaires and the dependent groups were analyzed with the t-test. The studies were limited to the years of 2016-2021 and science education, and suggestions were presented in the light of the findings.