Investigating the effect of scientific argumentation based instruction approach on students' conceptual change and success concerning the concept of mole

This study primarily aims at investigating the effect of scientific argumentation based instruction approach on students? conceptual change and success concerning the concept of mole and comparing the results with the traditional instruction method. Besides, students? understanding of the nature of scientific knowledge, their ability of making scientific comparisons and their attitudes towards chemistry have been studied in addition to dependent variables used in order to provide further comprehensive and beneficial inferences related to the approach and method applied in this study.The sample of the study is formed of 60 students studying in two 9th-grade classes of Alparslan Anatolia High School of Ankara Directory Of National Education in 2007-2008 school year. The sample has been formed through the easily available sampling method and the experimental group and the control group have been determined randomly out of the sample. Both the experimental and the control group within the sample are made up of 30 students. In the study, the design of pretest- posttest control group, which is a quasi experimental pattern, has been used. The study has continued toatally seven weeks with two classes per week including the applications of pretest- posttest.In this study, Mole Concept Test, Mole Achievement Test, The Nature of the Scientific Knowledge Scale, Scientific Reasoning Class Test and Attitude Towards Chemistry Scale have been used as tools of measurement within fore pretest-posttest. The results of the tests have been used as the quantitive data of the study. The evaluation of these quantitive data has been carried out through the SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) computer programme. t-test has been used to test the hypotheses put forward in the study.The statistical analysis of the study has showed that the students in the experimental group, who have had scientific argumentation based instruction, have proved meaningfully better at conceptual change and success in the concept of mole when compared with the students traditionally instructed in the control group. Futhermore, a differentiation between the experimental and the control group has been observed, which is siding with the experimental one, concerning the understanding of the nature of scientific knowledge, ability of scientific reasoning and developing positive attitude towards chemistry.