Examination of informal reasoning of seventh gradestudents on climate change

In this study, it is aimed to investigate the informal reasoning of seventh grade primary school students about climate change, which is a socioscientific issue. In the research, survey research which is one of the quantitative methods was used.The study was conducted with 182 seventh grade students selected by random sampling method. To collect data, the weather and climate phenomena and the argument evaluation test was used. Data obtained by the quantitative data collection tools were analyzed using descriptive statistics and the Pearson's correlation analysis. The qualitative data, on the other hand, were analyzed using descriptive statistics and descriptive analysis. As a result of the analyses, it was found that the student's levels of distinguishing between weather and climate phenomena were high and their levels of reasoning related to the evaluation of arguments were moderate and there was a positive, low-level correlation between them. In evaluating the strength of arguments, the students accepted the strong-believable arguments as highly strong. This is followed by the weak-believable, strong-unbelievable and weak-unbelievable, respectively. On the other hand, looking at the reasons why the students chose the arguments as strong or weak, the most of the students provided explanations that are irrelevant to the relationship between premises and conclusions. A small number of students emphasized the time relationship between premises and conclusions.