STEM Education Practices: Examination of the Argumentation Skills of Pre-service Science Teachers

Abstract

The aim of this research is to examine the pre-service science teachers’ progress in structuring their argumentation components during the STEM education practices. In the research were worked with 9 pre-service science teachers who are 3rd grade students and took the course of 'Science Laboratory Practices' in a state university. The research is a case study. In the research, structured and unstructured activities were applied for 9 weeks. In structured practices, instructions were followed to show how simple machines are constructed. Unstructured practices were based on the design of pre-service science teachers. The data of the research is obtained through voice recordings, unstructured observation. Argumentation components were examined according to the descriptive analysis approach. As a result of analysis of obtained data; pre-service science teachers have made great progress in constructing argumentation components (claim, evidence, reasoning and rebuttal), and the average score of the rebuttal was found to be lower than the other components. The results obtained from this study demonstrate that STEM education is an effective approach to improving the argumentation skill. Argumentation takes part in engineering design processes which have great importance in STEM practices; given its major role in identifying problems, development of possible solutions and determination, evaluation and discussion of most plausible ones. Therefore argumentation approach can be included as part of STEM education.

Keywords: STEM education, argumentation, science education, pre-service science teachers