Özet:

The present study aims to determine the effect of socioscientific issues-based popular science readings on prospective classroom teachers’ critical thinking skills and reading habits. This quantitative research employed the one-group pretest-posttest research design, which is recognized as a weak experimental design. The research was conducted with 15 volunteering prospective classroom teachers. The "Critical Thinking Skills Questionnaire" and "Attitude Scale towards Reading Habits" were applied as a pre-test and post-test to measure variations in participants’ critical thinking skills and reading habits. During the 10-week experimental process, articles about socioscientific issues from a Turkish popular science magazine (TUBITAK Bilim ve Teknik) were read with prospective classroom teachers. As a result, it was found that socioscientific issues-based popular science readings led to a statistically significant (p<0.05) increase in participants’ mean scores from both post-test scales compared to their mean scores from pre-test scales. Also, the effect size (ή2) of the difference between pre-test and post-test mean scores was found to be a large effect size. Socioscientific issues-based activities take the learning process to another dimension and can serve as a tool for students to gain a perspective towards the world and science and to question and interpret real-life situations. It is thought that such processes, which can be designed using various activities, can contribute to the professional experience of prospective teachers. Using such activities in primary schools can make the teaching process more fun and increase students’ interest and engagement in classes.

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