THE EFFECT OF VISUAL MEDIA-SUPPORTED CLASSROOM DISCUSSION ON 8 TH GRADE STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS SOCIO-SCIENTIFIC ISSUES, TOWARDS RESEARCH AND INQUIRY AND ON THEIR DECISION MAKING

Abstract

The current study aimed to investigate the effect of visual media-supported classroom discussions on 8th grade students’ attitudes towards socio-scientific issues, towards research and inquiry and on their decision making. The study was conducted in a secondary school located in a city in the western part of Turkey in the fall term of the 2021-2022 school year. The study group is comprised of a total of 51 eighth grade students; 25 in the experimental group and 26 in the control group. The study employed the quasi-experimental pretestposttest control group design, one of the quantitative research methods. The study lasted for 9 weeks. As the data collection tools, the adolescent decision-making scale, the scale of attitudes towards socio-scientific issues and the scale of attitudes towards research and inquiry were used in the study. Classroom activities defined in the science curriculum were conducted with the control group students while visual media-supported classroom discussions in addition to the activities defined in the curriculum were conducted with the experimental group students. At the end of the study, a statistically significant difference was found between the pretest and posttest mean scores of the experimental and control group students taken from the scales of attitudes towards socio-scientific issues and research and inquiry in favour of the experimental group students. While no significant difference was observed between the pretest and posttest mean scores of the control group students taken from the adolescent decision-making scale, a statistically significant difference was observed between the pretest and posttest mean scores of the experimental group students taken from the adolescent decision-making scale’s sub-scales of self-esteem, vigilance and cope out whereas no significant difference was observed between the pretest and posttest mean scores taken from the sub-scales of complacency and panic.