Teaching gases topic to high school students trough argumentation

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of argumentation on students? understanding of concepts about gases, their achievement in solving algorithmic problems about concepts and principles and their attitudes towards chemistry. The other purpose is to investigate the effectiveness of argumentation materials on students? understanding of nature of science and to develop their critical thinking ability and to eliminate misconceptions about nature of science, if any. The sample of the study, which was conducted in fall of 2006-2007, consisted of a total of 54 students from two 10th grade classes in Aydınlıkevler Anatolian High School. Convenience sampling was used. A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest control group design was used in this study. While traditional instruction was used in control group (26 students), argumentation was used in experimental group (28 students). This study consists of quantitative data. The data were collected using five instruments: 1) Gases Concepts Test 2) Gases Achievement Test 3) Nature of Scientific Knowledge Scale 4) Attitude Towards Chemistry Scale 5) Scientific Process Skill Test. To test the hypotheses in this study, t-test was used. The results showed that the achievement and conceptual change scores of the students which were instructed with argumentation method were higher than of the students which were instructed with traditional instruction method. No significant differences were found between students? attitude towards chemistry and their understanding of nature of science.