Browsing by Author "Kutluca A.Y."

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Changes in Pre-service Science Teachers’ Understandings After Being Involved in Explicit Nature of Science and Socioscientific Argumentation Processes
(2017-08-01) Kutluca A.Y.; Aydın A.
The study explored the changes in pre-service science teachers’ understanding of the nature of science and their opinions about the nature of science, science teaching and argumentation after their participation in explicit nature of science (NOS) and socioscientific argumentation processes. The participants were 56 third-grade pre-service science teachers studying in a state university in Turkey. The treatment group comprised 27 participants, and there were 29 participants in the comparison group. The comparison group participants were involved in a student-centred science-teaching process, and the participants of the treatment group were involved in explicit NOS and socioscientific argumentation processes. In the study, which lasted a total of 11 weeks, a NOS-as-argumentation questionnaire was administered to all the participants to determine their understanding of NOS at the beginning and end of the data collection process, and six random participants of the treatment group participated in semi-structured interview questions in order to further understand their views regarding NOS, science teaching and argumentation. Qualitative and quantitative data analysis revealed that the explicit NOS and socioscientific argumentation processes had a significant effect on pre-service science teachers’ NOS understandings. Furthermore, NOS, argumentation and science teaching views of the participants in the treatment group showed a positive change. The results of this study are discussed in light of the related literature, and suggestions are made within the context of contribution to science-teaching literature, improvement of education quality and education of pre-service teachers.
Pre-service science teachers’ nature of science understandings’ influence on their socioscientific argumentation quality^*
(2018-01-01) Kutluca A.Y.; Aydın A.
The purpose of this study is to investigate pre-service science teachers’ (PSTs’) nature of science (NOS) understandings’ influence on their socioscientific argumentation quality. This study was conducted with 12 participants whom were chosen with maximum variation sampling method among 27 PSTs. The class of the participants was chosen by basic random sampling method. This study, which contains both qualitative and quantitative processes, is an explanatory mixed method in which quantitative data are used in more detail than qualitative data. For this study, which lasted 11 weeks in total, three groups with four participants in each were formed. Presentations, whole-class discussions and small group discussions were made for participants to learn fundamental knowledge about the NOS and socioscientific argumentation; and to have them basic argumentation formation skills. Qualitative and quantitative data analyses indicate that understanding (low, medium, high) of the NOS impacts socioscientific argumentation quality. Our results also indicate that superior understanding of the NOS also predicts socioscientific argumentation quality.
The Quality of Pre-service Science Teachers' Argumentation: Influence of Content Knowledge
(2014-04-30) Cetin P.S.; Dogan N.; Kutluca A.Y.
Research exploring the possible link between quality of argumentation and content knowledge is not straightforward. Some studies suggest a positive relationship (e.g. Dawson & Schibeci in J Biol Educ 38(1):7-12, 2003) while others do not (e.g. Zohar & Nemet in J Res Sci Teach 39:35-62, 2002). This study examined the possible relationship between pre-service science teachers' (PSTs) lines of argument regarding genetic cloning issues and their knowledge of the related content. In the research, pre-service teachers were divided into groups according to the results of a conceptual understanding test on genetic cloning, and were categorized as high, middle and low achievers. After introducing three socio-scientific scenarios (relating to genetic cloning) with the intention of prompting lines of argumentation, the PSTs then participated in semi-structured interviews with the research team. It was revealed that there is not a significant relationship between the quality of socio-scientific argumentation among PSTs and their knowledge of content in the domain of cloning. Explanations for these results are discussed in light of the related literature and with reference to the interviews. © 2014 The Association for Science Teacher Education, USA.