Abstract

• The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of experiential learning on science process skills in teaching secondary school students. Explanatory sequential design was conducted in this study. The research design for quantitative study was the non-equivalent control group design. Intrinsic case study design was used as the qualitative design. Instruments like pretest and posttest were used as the quantitative ones. Semi-structured interview questions were used as qualitative instruments. For the internal consistency reliability, Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was used. The reliability coefficient for the pretest was 0.72, and for the posttest was 0.76. A random sampling method was used to choose four high schools from two regions. The purposive sampling method was applied for collecting qualitative data. Quantitative data was analyzed by one-way analysis of covariance. The results showed that basic science process skills of students who received instruction with experiential learning on science process skills model were higher than those of students who did not receive it. Qualitative data was analyzed by thematic analysis. Qualitative findings revealed that students and teachers who participated in the experimental groups preferred the learning situation, and were willing to apply the experiential learning on science process skills model. All these results showed that the experiential learning on science process skills model was supportive in teaching science to achieve academic mastery and to acquire basic science process skills.