INVESTIGATION OF THE CONFIDENCE SKILLS OF STUDENTS WHO PARTICIPATE IN TUBITAK RESEARCH PROJECTS AND WHO DO NOT PARTICIPATE IN VARIOUS VARIABLES

Abstract

High School Students Research Projects on students' self-confidence levels, which encourage young people to think, observe, wonder and research, and aim to raise them with 21st century skills so that they can solve the problems they may encounter in the future.

This cross-sectional study was conducted on 229 vocational high school students in Kayseri province in the 2020-2021 academic year and 227 students from other high schools who participated in the TÜBİTAK High School Students Research Projects Competition at least at the regional exhibition level in the last 3 years.  In the research, a questionnaire form containing information about the socio-demographic and cultural characteristics of the students and the “Self-Confidence Scale” were used as data collection tools. Student t-test and analysis of variance were used in the statistical analysis of the data and the Pearson correlation coefficient was used in the evaluation of the relationship between the variables. The socio-demographic variables of the students participating in the research are given as percentages according to the students who participated in the research projects and those who did not.

It was determined that the self-confidence levels of the students who participated in the research projects were significantly higher than those who did not participate in the research projects. It has been determined that students' self-confidence scores differ significantly according to gender, grade level, school type, income level, family attitude, parental status, and education level.