Abstract:

Discussion is both a democratic civic skill and a teaching method. It has been observed that social studies stakeholders are generally kept their distance toward discussion. It has been observed that there are few studies carried out on the discussion attitudes of teacher candidates (TCs) in the context of social studies. It is observed that TCs have both positive and negative attitudes toward discussion. On the other hand, the number of studies examining secondary school students' attitudes toward the discussion is limited. The current study aims to examine the attitudes of three participant groups (student, teacher, and TCs) toward the discussion. The survey model, which is one of the quantitative research methods, was used. The sample of the study consisted of 269 students, 617 TCs, and 167 teachers, a total of 1053 participants, determined by the convenience sampling method. In order to collect data, the argumentative attitude scale developed by Infante and Rancer (1982) as 20 items and adapted into Turkish as ten items by Turunç, Eser, and Dinç (2018), and a personal information form developed by the researchers was used. Frequency and percentage distributions regarding the demographic characteristics of students, TCs, and teachers, as well as the argumentative attitudes of the participants, were determined according to the independent variables. According to the findings, teachers' discussion attitudes did not differ significantly by experience and gender. A significant difference was found between the grade levels of TCs and secondary school students. Also, it was observed that male TCs had a higher avoidance attitude. The research showed that although teachers, students, and TCs had positive attitudes, they also had various concerns about the discussion. In light of the results, the participation of teachers, students, and TCs in carefully prepared and conducted discussions and the examination of conflicting emotions with longitudinal studies was suggested.

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