Examining the effectiveness of an argumentation-based professional development support program designed for science teachers of gifted students

In our country, education and training services provided to gifted students are carried out in Science and Art Centres under the Ministry of National Education. Studies in the literature show that science teachers who provide education to gifted students in these centres need professional development activities on various subjects. The aim of this study is to design a professional development support programme aiming to develop argumentation-based teaching skills for science teachers teaching gifted students in Science and Art Centres and to implement the designed professional development support programme. The content of the argumentation activities in the designed professional development support programme was planned based on the nature of science. The reason why the professional development support programme given to science teachers in this study was designed based on the nature of science and argumentation is that both in the literature review and in the interviews conducted with science teachers working in Science and Art Centres in different provinces of our country within the scope of this study, it was pointed out that there is a limited number of studies on the professional development of science teachers of gifted students and that teachers feel an important need in this regard. The study group of the research was selected on the basis of volunteerism among science teachers working in Science and Art Centres located in different regions of our country. The research design was determined as a convergent parallel design from mixed method designs. The analysis of the data obtained from the research shows that science teachers of gifted students need trainings that can support and guide their professional development. In addition to this, it is among the remarkable results of the study that thanks to the professional development support program designed, teachers' ability to design and implement an argumentation-based teaching process improved and the reflections of this improvement in the classroom environment could be observed.