Argumentation practices in social sciences teaching

The primary aim of this study was to examine the effect of applying an argumentation-based learning method in a seventh grade social studies course on students' academic achievement, permanence of learning and attitudes towards the course, and to reveal their opinions on argumentation-based learning. Mixed-method approach was adopted in the study the included a total of 43 seventh graders, 20 of them were in the experimental group and 23 in the control group. Pretest-post-test quasi-experimental design was used in the quantitative part of the study. An academic achievement test was employed to determine the students' academic achievement levels, an attitude scale to determine their attitudes towards the course, and a semi-structured interview form to reveal their opinions about the practices implemented. SPSS 18.0 package program was used to analyse the quantitative data, and content analysis was performed to analyse the qualitative data. The quantitative results of the study showed that the argumentation-based learning method was influential on academic achievement and the permanence of learning. Yet, it did not bring about a significant difference in the students' attitudes towards the course. According to the qualitative results, the argumentation-based learning method enabled the students to actively and attentively participate in the classes, the classes were entertaining, and they wanted these activities to be used by the teacher.