Investigation of students' arguments in concept cartoon practices related to local socio-scientific issues

In this study, the aim was to investigate the concept cartoon practices, which were prepared on local socio-scientific issues, on the argument qualities of the students. The action research pattern was adopted in the study, which was conducted in compliance with the nature of qualitative research. The research was carried out in a secondary school in the district of Çamlıhemşin, Rize during the spring term in the 2017-2018 academic year. The study group of the research consisted of 25 eight-grade students. In the study, the issues of hydroelectric power plants (HPP), organic tea and green track were determined as the local socio-scientificissues. A total of nine concept cartoons on these issues were developed. Class practices, which were held in accordance with the argumentation process, lasted approximately two months. The written arguments of the students were obtained through the interview forms filled before and after the class practices. The arguments produced by the students were analyzed using "the Scoring Rubric for Argument Quality". The findings of the research showed that the concept cartoon activities in local socio-scientific issues improved the students' argument qualities. This improvement was the result of the in-class discussions, where the concept cartoons prepared on local socio-scientific issues provided an environment for developing multiple judgments by presenting different perspectives. It was also revealed that the argument qualities of the students whose argument qualities were low at the beginning significantly developed . It is suggested that local socio-scientific issues, which students witness and experience in their daily lives, be included in the curricula more often so that the argument qualities of the students can be developed further.