SCIENCE TEACHERS’ LEVEL OF FOLLOWING, UNDERSTANDING AND USING OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCHES: THE EXAMPLE OF ERZURUM AND ERZİNCAN

It is an ongoing discussed by the educational researchers that teachers generally do notfollow and not benefit from the existing educational researches. Therefore, there is a gapbetween research and practice in education. In this study, level of teachers’ awareness fromeducational researches, their understanding and the use of research outcomes in classroomswere determined by taking views of science and technology teachers. Research was conductedin accordance with the qualitative research approach. Data were collected through semistructuredinterviews by individual and focus group interviews. The sample of the study wasconsisted of 80 science and technology teachers working in schools in Erzurum and Erzincanprovinces. Analyses of the data were made through descriptive and content analysis techniqueswith the help of the Nvivo software. According to results of the research, very few teachers(10%) followed the educational researches regularly. In addition, it has emerged that teacherswho are following educational researches have difficulty in understanding researches andcould not use the results of them in practice