Investigation of effects the argumentation based science teaching on the academic success, motivation, interest and attitudes towards science

The aim of this study is to examine the impact of the argument-based science teaching method on the academic achievements of the 6th grade students in the "Electrical Conduction" unit and on their motivation, interest and attitude towards science. This study carried out pre-test and post-test control group design which is quasi experimental design. Study group of this research was composed of 84 students enrolled in 6th grade in a middle school in Istanbul during the 2015-2016 academic year. Of these students, a classroom with 42 students was randomly selected as control group and a classroom with 42 students as experimental group. While the courses in the control group were carried out as compatible with science curriculum, the course in the experimental group were carried out via argumentation method based on the activities prepared by the researcher additionally. Data were collected with the academic achievement test prepared by the researcher about "Electrical Conduction" unit, the "Motivation Scale Towards Science Learning" which was developed by Yılmaz and Huyugüzel Çavaş (2007), "Interest Scale Towards Science Course" developed by Lacin Şimşek and Nuhoğlu (2009) and "Attitude Scale Towards Science Course" developed by Baykul (1990) applied as the pre-test and post-test to the students in the control and experimental groups. Data were analyzed by using t-tests and ANCOVA analysis in the SPSS v. 18 program. According to the results of the study; while there was no statistically significant difference between groups' academic achievement and the motivation towards science at the beginning of the study, after the process a statistically significant difference occured on behalf of experimental group. There was no statistically significant difference between the motivation and interest towards science in the control and experiment groups; however, the motivation and interest test scores of the experimental group increased more. Keywords: Argumentation, Academic Achievement of Science Course, Motivation,Interest, Attitude.