The effect of argumentation-based science learning environments on students' conceptual understanding, scientific process skills

The aim of this research is to examine the effect of the Argumentation-Based Science Learning (ABSL) approach on science high school students' conceptual understanding levels and misconceptions of simple electrical circuits, scientific process skills and argument quality. The embedded mixed design method was used in the research where also quasi-experimental design, one of the quantitative method designs, and content analysis, one of the qualitative analysis methods, were used together. The study group,selected through convenience sampling method, consists of 102 students in the 10th grade of a science high school in Ankara, 2023-2024 academic year. BEDT, BSBT, ABSL reports and semi-structured interview form were used as data collection tools. Simple Electrical Circuits topics and achievements of the Unit Electricity and Magnetism" of 10th grade science high school curriculum were taught to the control group with current program, while to the experimental group with the ABSL approach. Students were asked to fill out an ABSL report for the activities carried out during the application. After the application process, semi-structured interviews about the ABSL approach were held with the 9 students selected according to their BEDT conceptual understanding scores. Descriptive statistics, Mann Whitney U, Wilcoxon Signed Rank and Friedman tests were used in the analysis of quantitative data, whereas content analysis was used in the analysis of qualitative data. It was observed that the ABSL approach improved students' conceptual understanding, scientific process skills and argument quality while it reduced misconceptions. In semi-structured interviews, it was seen that students while pointing out its disadvantages, preferred the ABSL approach to current program.