摘要：The aim of the study was to examine parents’ and their children’s experiences of
science experimentation in terms of parents’ roles, science process skills assessed during the
experiment and academic successes regarding science lessons. Realization of science activities by
students and their parents is at the centre of this study. That is why its study group was constituted
from 13 junior high school students and their parents who became participants on voluntary basis.
Various data collecting tools such as questionnaire forms, observation forms and video records
were used in order to obtain data diversity in this study. Parents participating in this study were
mainly assumed three roles as assistant, learner and mentor during the science experimentation
process. The most frequent role exhibited by participating parents was assistant role with
frequency of five. Learner and mentor roles exhibited by parents had equal frequency of three.
Co-participant and observer roles were exhibited only by 1 parent each. The mentor parents in the
study knew or estimated how to conduct the experiment but they did not tell or explain how to do
the experiment directly to the students. Instead, mentor parents guided the students positively to
find out how to conduct the experiment. The co-participant parent studied just like a student during
the experimentation process. It has been found out that parents’ respective roles might be related to
their educational backgrounds. It has also been confirmed that observer, learner and assistant
parents were primary, secondary or high school graduates; there was only one assistant parent who
had an associate degree.
关键词：parents’ role; science experiments; science process skills
