The effect of socioscience-based education on academic achievement, analytical thinking and learning agility skills of 8 th grade students

The purpose of this research is to examine the effects of socio-scientific based activities implemented within the scope of the DNA and Genetic Code unit of the eighth grade Science course in middle school on students' academic achievement, analytical thinking and learning agility skills. For this purpose, the Solomon Four-Group Model, which provides internal and external validity together, was used. The research was implemented in a public school in the central district of Düzce province in the first semester of the 2023-2024 academic year. A total of 84 students were sampled from four existing eighth grades, with two experimental and two control groups, through unbiased assignment. While the pre-test and post-test, which are data collection tools, were applied to the Experimental1 and Control2 groups, only the post-test was applied to the Experimental2 and Control1 groups. In this way, the effect of the pre-test on the results was tried to be minimized. In the study carried out for seven weeks, socio-scientific based activities prepared for the experimental groups were applied, while in the control groups, education continued within the scope of the activities in the 2018 Science Curriculum. As data collection tools, the "Academic Achievement Test", "Analytical Thinking Scale" and "Learning Agility Scale" consisting of questions asked in the exams previously conducted by the Ministry of National Education, including the implemented gains, were used. ANOVA and t-test were applied in data analysis. According to the research findings, it was shown that the teaching including socio-scientific based activities significantly increased the academic success of the students, but there was no significant change in the students' analytical thinking and learning agility skills. Based on the research results, suggestions were presented to the researchers for future studies.