Seventh-grade students' views and argument levels on waste management: An action research

In this study, it was aimed to determine the views of seventh-grade middle school students about waste management, a socioscientific issue, and the argument levels that emerged in the argumentation practice. The research was conducted in Kömürcüler Secondary School in the central district of Rize province in the winter semester of the 2022-2023 academic year. The sample of the study consisted of 18 seventh-grade students. This study, in which action research, one of the qualitative research methods, was applied, was carried out in three stages. The first stage included semi-structured interviews conducted for the due diligence step of the action research. The data obtained in these interviews were subjected to content analysis and codes, categories and themes were determined. The second phase continued with the argumentation activity in the implementation phase of the action research. At the end of this phase, students were given argumentation-based activity sheets (ABAS) and their written explanations were taken. These written explanations were analyzed using the "Argumentation Evaluation Rubric" and students' argument levels were determined. In the third stage, a question in the interview form applied in the first stage was reapplied to reveal how students' views on waste management were affected by the argumentation practice. As a result of the research, it was seen that the students who participated in the research initially, lacked knowledge about waste management. This may have caused the students' argument levels determined through ABAS to be mostly concentrated at Level 2 (claim + data). On the other hand, the fact that some of the students were able to produce arguments at Levels 4 and 5 may indicate that the argumentation activity was effective in developing different perspectives on processes and phenomena related to waste management. In this context, it is suggested that SSI argumentation should be integrated into science courses to improve the students' awareness and argument levels, especially those living in rural areas, about social issues such as waste management.