An action research about argumentation skill on socio-scientific issues and development of attitudes towards human rights

This study was designed as an action research investigating how argumentation skills on socio-scientific issues and attitudes towards human rights of the students at eighth grade secondary school can be developed and how the problems which are possible to be faced with during implementation can be resolved. The study was conducted in a secondary school which was at middle socio-economic level during spring and fall semesters of the 2012-2013 academic year. The sample of the study consisted of 26 students, 14 of them were female and 12 of them were male, studying at eighth grade level and they were selected according to the criterion sampling of purposive sampling methods. The data of the study was collected by unstructured observation (video-camera recordings), teacher and student diaries, written documents about argumentation skill and human rights and Human Rights Attitude Scale (HRAS) which was developed by the researchers. The qualitative data of the research was analyzed through content analysis. This analysis was applied during the implementation and after the process was completed and constant comparison method was used. The change in the scores of HRAS was analyzed by using the Freidman test. The results of the research revealed that the students who were in the sample group which was supported by applications based on socio-scientific issues developed perceptions and attitudes towards human rights. In this context, the qualitative data showed that perceptions and attitudes about the first generation rights such as human dignity, the right to life, prohibition of discrimination, the right of physical and spiritual privilege, the right of respect to private life and privacy of personal information, the right of property, the right to a fair trial and the right of freedom of speech were developed. It also displayed that perceptions and attitudes about some second generation rights such as the right to choose a job and work, the right to be protected against unfair dismissal, the right to have health services, the right to housing, the right to have enough life standards and the right to food security were developed. There were also some perceptions and attitudes which were developed about third generation rights such as the right to environmental protection, the right to respect for common heritage of mankind, the right to have peace and the right to sustainable development. The quantitative findings presented that the attitude towards human rights increased significantly. Furthermore, it was observed during the implementations that some problems about forming an understanding about human rights and claiming and insisting on some ideas that do not comply with human rights occurred. The results of the research about developing the argumentation skill pointed that the argumentation skill of secondary school eighth grade students can be improved with the help of implementations based on socio-scientific issues and some important changes in the quality of the argumentations were observed in a positive way. In this context, it was found out that the skill of claiming, justification, presenting evidence, counter claiming-justification and producing a confutation were improved. Besides, it was revealed that there were some differences in the processes of the students about developing argumentation skill and the students who were more successful academically developed their argumentation skills faster and they presented richer argumentations. On the other hand, some other problems such as presenting justifications and evidences not supporting the claim, not being able to support with evidences by presenting some religious reasons, the lack of skill about supporting information and research, the lack of verbal-linguistic skill, not being able to distinguish the difference between justification and evidence and not being able to decide which information could be evidence. The results obtained from this research showed that the argumentation skill and the attitude towards human rights can be developed on the students in the sampling group by the help of socio-scientific issues. Moreover, it can be suggested that more research can be carried out at schools with different socio-economic levels, at different grade levels, with teachers who have different experiences and proficiencies and with wider sampling groups so as to obtain more comprehensive information.