The effect of science courses provided with society scientific issue activities on the critical thinking tendencies and decision-making skills of 8th grade students

The aim of this study is to examine the effects of science lessons taught with socioscientific subject activities on 8th grade students' critical thinking tendencies and decision-making skills. In the study, mixed research method was used in which qualitative and quantitative data were used together. This research was conducted with 8th grade students studying in a district of Bayburt province. The study group consisted of 34 students, 17 experimental and 17 control. Decision Making Skill Scale, Critical Thinking Disposition Scale and open-ended questions were used as data collection tools. The quantitative data obtained from the scales were analyzed using the SPSS package program. As a result of the research, it was determined that there was a significant difference between the experimental and control groups in terms of critical thinking disposition in favor of the experimental group. It was concluded that the lessons taught with socioscientific subject activities positively affected students' critical thinking disposition. According to the results obtained from the decision-making skill scale, no significant difference was found between the experimental and control groups. It was determined that the achievement of the experimental group students increased slightly, but this increase did not create a significant difference. This situation revealed that the lessons taught using socioscientific subject activities were low effective in developing students' decision-making skills. When the results obtained from the qualitative data collected in the study were analyzed, it was concluded that the lessons taught with socioscientific subject activities positively affected students' critical thinking tendencies and decision-making skills.