Teaching the life of Turkish-Islamic scholars who have shaped science in the field of science in mobile augmented reality based learning environment

Science history is a discipline that teaches students about the evolution of scientific thought and the discoveries of scientists. However, some of these topics can be abstract and difficult to understand. The use of technology makes science history education more effective, engaging, and accessible. The aim of this study is to investigate the lives of Turkish-Islamic scholars who have contributed to science, to design and develop an application that supports their teaching in a Mobile Augmented Reality (MAR) based learning environment, and to investigate the impact of the developed MAR-based learning environment on middle school students' knowledge and scientific attitudes towards Turkish-Islamic scholars. A mixed-method approach was used in the study and it was conducted within the framework of a multi-stage design, which is one of the mixed-method designs. The study consists of a total of three stages. In the first stage, document analysis was conducted, and the 2018 Science Course Curriculum and eight textbooks taught in middle schools affiliated with the Ministry of National Education (NEM) in the 2020-2021 academic year were examined. It was found that there were many Turkish-Islamic scholars who had influenced science, but the section devoted to Islamic scholars in the textbooks was not sufficient, and the scientists frequently mentioned in science books and media outlets were of Western origin. In the second stage, a MAR application named TISAR-3D was developed, focusing on the lives and scientific contributions of Turkish-Islamic scholars, taking into account the feelings, thoughts, and perspectives of 10 science teachers and five middle school students through focus group discussions and individual interviews conducted at different times. Design-based research method was used in the second stage. The second stage of the study was carried out in four stages, taking into account the cyclic structure of design-based research: analysis, design, development-implementation-evaluation, and reporting. In the third stage of the study, the impact of the TISAR-3D MAR application on middle school students' knowledge and scientific attitudes towards Turkish-Islamic scholars was experimentally tested. This study was conducted over eight weeks with a group of 90 seventh grade students in a public school in Elazığ, Turkey, using an experimental group and a control group. The TISAR-3D application was used in the experimental group, while reading texts were used in the control group. The Turkish-Islamic Scholars Knowledge Test and the Scientific Attitude Scale were used as quantitative data collection tools, while focus group discussions, individual interviews, notes, images, and audio recordings were used as qualitative data collection tools. The SPSS 22 package program was used for quantitative data analysis, and ANCOVA was applied for statistical analysis. Content analysis was used for qualitative data analysis. The results of the study showed a significant increase in academic achievement in the experimental group compared to the control group, but no statistically significant difference was found in scientific attitudes. Findings of this study showed that secondary school students can learn the history of science interactively by using the TISAR-3D application.