The Effect of Argument-Driven Inquiry on Pre-Service Science Teachers' Attitudes and Argumentation Skills

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of Argument-Driven Inquiry (ADI) laboratory activities to pre-service elementary science teachers' attitude towards physic laboratory and their argumentation quality. Participants (n=63) were pre-service science teachers at Research University in Turkey. The students in the control group (n=32) participated in six different traditional laboratory activities. The students in the experimental group (n=31) participated in six different Argument-Driven Inquiry (ADI) laboratory activities. Data were collected through Physics Laboratory Attitude Questionnaire and the reports that were written individually by students. All of the participants took physics laboratory attitude questionnaire before and after the instructional intervention. The results of this study showed that no significant differences were observed in Attitude Questionnaire between the ADI instruction and traditional instruction groups. The results of the study showed that the ADI instructional method was more effective in improving the argumentation quality compared to the traditional method. ADI did not changed the attitudes but the argumentation skills changed significantly.