Teaching 5th grades elementary students with scientific argument based method in the area of world and universe learning

Considering today's changing conditions, it is clear that human beings cannot follow the changes in the area of science and technique anymore. In addition to this, science and technique have advanced so fast that many academicians and educators have difficulties in following this progress. In this rapid progression, students need to argue and evaluate the science to learn more actively and permanently. In spite of the increasing stress of many researchers on the importance of teaching with scientific argument method in science education, teaching with scientific argumentation method is applied very rarely in science class. Some of the reasons of this rare application are science teachers' dependence on traditional teaching methods, inadequate or no in-service training about argumentation. In addition, even teachers have enough knowledge about scientific argumentation, since they have been educated with traditional teaching method, they model their teaching on how they have been taught, not on what they have learnt. Furthermore, insufficient sample materials about how to apply this teaching method, inadequate support by Ministry of National Education (MEB), and inadequacy of experimental studies which examine the effectiveness of teaching with scientific argumentation are some of the reasons. Nevertheless, very little things are known about how individuals are busy with scientific argumentation while they construct their knowledge about nature of world and science, which is one of the aim of science education.One of the aim of this study is to examine the effects of teaching with scientific argumentation on 5th grades students' understanding of ideas about world and universe, their success of solving problems about concepts and principles, and their attitudes toward science. The other aim of the study is, by examining the effects of the materials of scientific argumentation-based lessons on students' understanding about nature of science, to develop their critical thinking ability, to provide them critical view about science and scientific knowledge and dispel their myths about nature of science, if any. The method of this study was applied in Fevzi Çakmak Primary School (Çorum, Sungurlu) with 37 students of 5th grades in second semester of 2010-2011 education year. Intact classes were selected as the sample of the study as there is no possibility to change the students in each class who participate in the study, the classes were assigned randomly to either experimental or control group. Semi-experimental pre-test post-test control group design was used in study. While traditional teaching method was used in control group, scientific argumentation method was used in experimental group.This study?s data are composed of qualitative and quantitative data. Quantitative data were evaluated according to data which were obtained from World and Universe Achievement Test, Nature of Scientific Knowledge Scale and The Attitude Toward Science Scale. Qualitative data were evaluated according to data obtained from World and Universe Interview Form.In order to test this study's hypothesis, t-test was used. According to results, significant difference was seen between academic achievement of the students who were educated with scientific argumentation method and of the students who were educated with traditional method. No significant difference was seen on their attitudes to Science and Technology lesson and their understanding about scientific knowledge nature. As the experimental group is compared with the control group, an increase was seen on experimental group students' academic success, their attitudes to Science and Technology lesson and their view of nature of scientific knowledge.In the lights of the findings of this study, it can be concluded that teaching with scientific argumentation is more effective on 5th grades students' understanding of the concepts of World and Universe, their success of problem solving about concepts and principles about this topic.Key Words: Argumentation, The Earth and The Universe, Nature of Science