The effect of argumantation-based inquiry (ABI) approach on based learning environment academic achievement and critical thinking skills of 5th grade students

The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of argumentation-based science learning (ABSL) approach on academic achievement and critical thinking of secondary school fifth grade students. Mixed method was used in the study. The study was conducted with fifth grade students receiving education from the same teacher in two different classes at a secondary school in Kastamonu province in the fall term of the school year of 2016-2017. One of the classes that participated in the study was randomly determined as experimental group and the other, control group before the study. Lessons of both the experimental and the control group were conducted by the researcher. Science lesson of the experimental group was taught with activities that were appropriate for the ABSL approach. In the control group, on the other hand, lessons were taught by using conventional teaching techniques such as direct instruction, question-answer and display experiments. Activities were conducted throughout the units of "Measurement of Force Magnitude" (U1) and "Substance and Change" (U2). Unit-Based Academic Achievement Tests (UBAAT) were used as assessment instrument for determining and comparing the science achievement of groups and Critical Thinking Test (CTT) for determining critical thinking skills at the beginning and at the end of both units. The t-test and ANCOVA analyses were applied to the acquired quantitative data in the SPSS software. Following the applications, semi-structured interviews were applied to a total of 12 students, six from the experimental group and six from the control group. Themes and codes were formed by analyzing the interviews in the Nvivo 11 software. When the findings were evaluated, it was determined that the experimental group which was designed in accordance with the ABI approach than the control group was more successful in academic achievement tests and critical thinking tests.