THE EFFECT OF ARGUMENTATION BASED TEACHING ON THE UNDERSTANDING LEVELS OF PRIMARY SCHOOL STUDENTS ABOUT THE NATURE OF SCIENCE

Abstract

Researches showes that primary school students have insufficient understanding of the nature of science. Recent studies emphasise the importance of scientific argumentation. The aim of this research is to investigate the effect of argumentation on the levels of understanding of nature of science of primary school students in science lessons. Quasi experimental design was applied in this research which was studied with eighth grade students in primary school. Nature of science survey and pre-knowledge test were used for data gathering in this research which has been planned for two years. Data were analyzed with SPSS 12,0. Meaningful differences were found between argumentation based learning class and traditional learning class with respect to understanding levels of the nature of science (first practice F1-48=8,032; p=0,007; second practice F1-34=10,422; p=0,003). Scientific argumentation method is suggested as a usable method to teach the nature of science.