An analysis of the influences of the teaching approach based on scientific argumentation on high school students' conceptual understanding, attitudes, and willingness for argumentation and the quality of argumentation

This research was conducted in order to determine the change in students' conceptual understanding, attitudes towards the chemistry course and willingness for argumentation in case the teaching approach based on scientific argumentation is implemented in the teaching of the subjects of ?Structure of Matter? in the ninth grade and ?Gases? in the tenth grade; and to determine the difference of this group of students from the other student group whose members learned the above mentioned subjects through the traditional teaching approach. In addition, it was aimed to determine the quality of argumentation through students' argumentation levels in written argumentation activities, the elements employed and grading; to compare argumentation levels in individual and group tasks; and to determine the influence of gender on the quality of argumentation.The research was conducted in two grade levels of a high school in the city of Çankırı. Classes were carried out with the teaching approach based on scientific argumentation in the experiment group (N=26) and with the traditional teaching approach in the control group (N=27). Applications lasted 13 weeks in the ninth grade and eight weeks in the tenth grade. The concept test and the attitude scale towards the chemistry course were applied on both groups, and the willingness for argumentation scale was separately applied on the experiment group. Interviews were conducted at the end of each chapter with six students from each group. The experiment group students were given written argumentation activities during argumentation tasks, and these activities were firstly carried out individually and then in groups of five people.In order to test the hypotheses; the t-test, covariance analysis (ANCOVA), Chi-square analysis and Mann Whitney U-test were conducted. According to analysis results, it was observed that the experiment group students' conceptual understandings and attitudes towards the chemistry course were significantly higher that those of the control group students. Moreover, the experiment group students' willingness for argumentation differed significantly throughout the applications.According to research results, it was determined that the levels of written argumentation activities completed with group works and the argumentations carried out in the tenth grade were higher, more elements were used in these activities and the quality of these elements were higher. However, no significant difference was found between the male and female students' qualities of argumentation.