Essays in Education Special Edition 1 Development and Current Status of Science Education Research in Turkey

The aim of this study is to determine the status and the trends of subject matters investigated, research methods/design and data analyses procedures used in science education research papers published in Turkey. Data were obtained from 413 papers concerning science education from 28 different journals publishing educational research in Turkey. Each paper was subjected to a content analysis in terms of the subject studied, the research design/method and data analysis methods used according to the Paper Classification Form (PCF) developed by the first author. This document analysis has showed that although the science education research is a new research enterprise for Turkey starting in 1990s, it took great attention from the educational researchers and the number of papers published reached a peak around 2005 but then showed a decline in 2006 and 2007. Although there are great similarities with the international trends, there are differences as well in terms of the frequently studied subjects and research methods. Studying identifications of misconceptions are loosing the attention while teaching studies increases. On the other hand quantitativ