Examining problems in project work executed in high schools according to student and teacher views

Project work is the primary method which enables practicing the activities that contemporary learning theories suggest. The aim of this study is to determine the issues encountered during project work in accordance with students’ and teachers’ views in secondary schools physics courses in the city of Trabzon, Turkey where project work has been executed. Case study strategies were adapted using semi-structured interview protocols with five teachers and five students in three different secondary schools. Findings revealed that students who designed their own projects lacked fundamental and experimental process skills such as “deciding on the project topic”, “observation”, “measuring and using the numbers”, “drawing conclusion” and “organizing and writing a report”. Issues such as time, availability of materials required in the project and consultancy needed have an effect on the process of project-based work. This study also indicated that students have not acquired the skills and knowledge of doing project-based work during their elementary education. Finally, the study illustrated that issues such as teacher pre-service and/or in-service training, cooperation among schools, university and other parts and support from local and national level are not enough to use project-based work in secondary schools, and thus it only depends on the school and teachers to utilize this mode of teaching of physics.