Student views on global warming (As a socioscientificissue) in social studies lesson

This research was carried out to study the debate skills and conceptions of 8th-grade students about the Global Warming as a socioscientific issue at Social Studies class. In order to collect the data, 613 8th-grade students from 16 schools of Sorgun district of Yozgat city, studying between the years of 2013 and 2014 were chosen as the sample group with the stratified sampling method which is one of the random sampling methods. The data were obtained from both the qualitative and quantitative methods. The conceptions of students were endeavoured to be determined with a Survey About Student Conception Of Global Warming, prepared as a five point likert scale by the researcher by taking the model into consideration, in the scanning process. The data obtained from the survey were analysed via SPSS. At the second part of the research, after determining the survey results as low, medium and high groups according to the obtained data conclusion, 3 students from each group were involved in the focus group conversation. The data obtained from this process were analysed and later evaluated via descriptive analysis method. As a result of the research questionnaires "Global warming causes the melt of the ice" it has been observed that %80.9 of the students have answered positively. "Global warming will affect all around the world at the same rate." it has been detected that %74.2 of the students gave the undecided and positively (I agree, I definitely agree) answer. It is seen that girls joined the research compared to boys, and the people living in towns and villages compared to the ones who are living in city centres have more information about the global warming. It was also confirmed that the difference about the place where students study (rural area-center) mattered significantly, too. It was understood that the very first source from which the students participated in the research found information about Global Warming was the mass media with the rate of %55,8. And, it was found that the rate of the students who got their first information about the topic from school subjects was %41,4. The average of the questionnaire points of the students who are interested in science lesson has been the highest. When focus group conversation data is analyzed, it was concluded that the students participating in the survey from the high groups had better debate skills rather than the students in other groups (medium and low groups).