Abstract:

The aim of this study is to determine the effect of teaching enriched with scientific discussion on the academic achievement of 6th grade students, their attitudes towards science course and the level of their understanding of the nature of science. In the research, quasi-experimental design with pre-test- post test inexperimental-control group of quantitative method was used. The study group of the research of 36 sixth grade students studying in the 2014-2015 academic year in Sivas  (experiment: 19, control:17). While the courses were taught according to the existing curriculum in the control group, in the experimental group they were handled according to the scientific discussion focused method and the study was conducted by the researcher in 5 weeks (20 hours) in both groups. In the research, the data were analyzed with t-test which is related groups from the parametric tests and unrelated groups by using statistical program. The data collection tools of the study prepared by the researcher are 20-item academic achievement test of Particle Structure unit, the science attitude scale prepared by Geban, Ertepınar, Yılmaz, Altan and Şahbaz (1994)  and the scale of understanding the nature of science wih three factors prepared by Can (2008). In the research,  activities which are created as a parallel with the achievements of the Material Particulate Structure unit and suitable for Toulmin Discussion Model and activities to understand the nature of science were used. According to the results of the research, while there was no significant difference between the average of the academic achievement pre-test scores of 6th grade students who were taught in the science program with the education enriched by the activities focused on scientific discussion, there was a significant difference between the academic achievement post test scores in favor of the experimental group. When the level of understanding the nature of science is examined, it has been seen that there is a significant difference in favor of the experimental group in all sub-dimensions of science, scientist and scientific knowledge. Also, in the research, the students’ attitudes towards science were compared and there was no significant difference between the avarage of the pre-test and the post-test scores of the experimental and control groups.

Keywords: