The effect of astronomy activities regarding walton argumentation on pseudoscience beliefs of science teacher candidates

Abstract

In this study, the effect of astronomy teaching carried out by argumentation applications formedaccording to Walton's argument-based dialogue structure on pseudoscience beliefs of scienceteacher candidates was analyzed. In the study, which was carried out with 54 science teachercandidates who were enrolled in the Department of Science Education at the Faculty ofEducation of Pamukkale University and enrolled in the astronomy course, a mixed method withqualitative and quantitative research methods was used. While 26 teacher candidates in theexperimental group were given argumentation-based astronomy teaching, the control group with28 students had a normal course of astronomy teaching. At the beginning and the end of thestudy, both groups were applied the Science, Pseudo-Science Separation scale, and at the end ofthe study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with six teacher candidates. The visual andwritten data obtained from the argumentation-based teaching practices were evaluated andinterpreted together with other quantitative and qualitative data. According to the data obtainedin relation to the quantitative dimension of the study, it was found that there was a positivedevelopment in the experimental and control groups in terms of pseudo-scientific beliefs, but thedevelopment of the teacher candidates in the experimental group was significantly higher thanthe control group. At the end of the research, the qualitative data obtained from the opinions ofthe prospective teachers who participated in the semi-structured interviews revealed that theparticipants in the experimental group were more successful in terms of science, pseudosciencedistinction.