Secondary School Students’ Initial and Changes in Cognitive Structures of Argument and Related Concepts

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the state of secondary school students’ cognitive structures about argument and related concepts and to reveal the change in their cognitive structures regarding these concepts after the implementation of the argumentation-oriented approach in science lessons. This study was conducted in Grade 6, 7, 8 classes, including a total of 80 students. This study follows a pre-experimental one group pretest–posttest design. Students were administered a word association test (WAT) covering argument and related concepts prior to and following the lessons. The results obtained from the WAT show that the students’ cognitive structures progressed from the pretest to posttest, with an increase in the number of response words and connections between words, and with a change in the nature of these connections. As a result of teaching science lessons through argumentation, it was detected that cognitive structures of students regarding argument and related concepts indicated changes in the right way.

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“…Additionally, it is evidenced that lessons prompting students to actively participate in the activities help unsuccessful students elevate their achievement levels. Active learning methods are regarded as more effective ways for students to learn physics and chemistry concepts, and compared to traditional instruction; these methods encourage them to be more active during lesson activities (Demirci & Çirkinoğlu Şekercioğlu, 2009;Kaya Eker, 2023;Yıldırır, 2020). According to Açıkgöz (2006), active learning can be described as the process in which the learner bears responsibility for learning, is given opportunities for making decisions concerning various learning dimensions and for self-regulation, and is prompted to use cognitive faculties through complex instructional steps.…”