Abstract:

Socio-Scientific Issues (SSI) can aid the development of logical decision-making skills in students, thereby helping schools develop knowledgeable individuals. When students engage in modelling tasks during the transition from school mathematics to the real world, their cognitive reasoning can be supported in a practical context during model development. Since it is speculated that the arguments developed in the modelling cycle are derived from modelling procedures, exploring the modelling procedures may offer insights into the students' arguments. The purpose of this study is to analyse how pre-service teachers deploy mathematical models while discussing the context of COVID-19, a socio-scientific issue, and to examine how the modelling process is linked. This study aims to investigate how pre-service teachers engage with argumentation and modelling practices and how one practice may impact the other. Our goal is to explore how the argumentation process concerning the phenomenon is interconnected with the modelling process. To achieve this, we have designed a learning environment that facilitates teacher candidates' participation in scientific argumentation and modelling practices. The research findings were analysed by investigating the sub-arguments formed during the modelling cycle and considering how the modelling processes corresponded with the research question. Upon close examination of the argument structures utilised by aspiring teachers in their solution proposals and modelling, it became evident that the majority of structures were of a lower level, with few high-level models.

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