The effect of argumentation-based implementations on 8th grade students' views on socioscientific issues and thinking skills

In this study, it is aimed to examine the effect of argumentation-based implementatıons on eighth grade students' views on socioscientıfic issues and thinking skills. The study group of the research consists of a total of 63 eighth grade students, 32 in the experimental group and 31 in the control group, studying at a public school affiliated to the Ministry of National Education in Aydın. Participants were selected by convenient sampling method. Experimental and control groups were randomly assigned. Mixed method design guided the present study. In the quantitative part of the study, a pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design was used. In the qualitative part, semi-structured interviews, in-class discussions, video recordings, and students' written expressions were used. The students in the experimental group worked on activities based on argumentation scenarios, and the students in the control group worked on lecture presentations and in-class activities. perspective on socioscientific issues scale developed by Topçu (2010), the reflective thinking scale developed by Yıldırım (2012), and the critical thinking scale developed by Görücü (2014) were used as quantitative data collection tools students' video records of the in-class argumentation activities , semi-structured interviews and written reports were used as qualitative data collection tools. . A statistical program was used to analyze quantitative data and the argumentation evaluation rubric developed by Sadler and Fowler (2006) was used in the analysis of qualitative data. As a result, implementation of socioscientific issues with the method of argumentation positively affects students' perspectives on socioscientific issues, critical thinking skills and reflective thinking skills. For this reason, it can be said that disseminating socioscientific argumentation in the classroom environment will be beneficial for students.