An analysis of the arguments used by 4th grade students during STEM activities

The main purpose of science education is to raise science literate individuals (Bybee, 1997). Science literacy includes using science and scientific perspective in all areas of life and being productive by developing critical thinking, scientific inquiry, decision making, evidence-based thinking, problem solving skills (Okulu, 2019; Özden, 2016). It is very difficult to raise science literates with the desired quality through traditional methods. STEM education, which is one of the new approaches and incorporates the equipment desired to be seen in a science literate individual, is an interdisciplinary approach. This approach, which aims to help students generate solutions to problems encountered in daily life (Breiner, Harkness, Johnson, Koehler, 2012), emphasizes skills such as questioning, discussion, generating solutions with the scientific method, trial and error, and leadership. Argumentation is the most appropriate method for systematically discussing opinions and proposals (Anagün ve Kardaş, 2016). Argumentation is the process of persuading people to support a claim by presenting data and justifications in order to support a claim, and to persuade the opposing views to their own claim with rebuttal statements (Erduran, Simon ve Osborne, 2004). Based on the idea that there may be more than one correct solution to a problem in scientific terms, the open-ended nature of the STEM approach is a suitable context for students to make argumentation (Gülen, 2018; Kaptan ve Korkmaz, 2001). In this study, students' argument structures were examined in this context during STEM activities. The aim of the study is to examine the arguments used by 4th grade primary school students during STEM education activities. With the research, it is aimed to reach the sub-objectives regarding the frequency of argumentation use, the purposes of argument use and the quality of arguments, taking into account the students' grade levels and mental processes. Basic qualitative research method was used in the study. Student arguments were evaluated according to Toulmin's (1958) argumentation model and Erduran, Simon, and Osborne's (2004) Argumentation Quality Assessment Model was used to determine argument quality. At the end of the research, it was determined that the argument structures of the students were mostly gathered around certain components since they had not yet entered the abstract operations period, taking into account their age and grade levels. It was observed that the progressive structure of STEM activities enriched students' mental processes and affected their argument structures, but the arguments remained at level 1 and level 2 according to Erduran, Simon, and Osborne's model (2004).