The Effect of Argument-Based Science Inquiry Report Format on Pre-Service ScienceTeachers’ Achievements and Attitudes towards Science Laboratory

Abstract

Argument-Based Science Inquiry (ABSI) approach in the preparation of laboratory report reveals a quite different format than traditional laboratory report format. The aim of this study is to examine the effect of the ABSI report format on pre-service science teachers’ achievements and attitudes towards science laboratory. A quasi-experimental design with non-equivalent groups was used in this study. The study was conducted with totally 52 3th grade pre-service science teachers attending to “Laboratory Applications in Science-I” course from a faculty of education in a state university in the Aegean region of Turkey. The pre-service science teachers were randomly assigned as experimental group (1 male, 25 female) and control group (11 male, 15 female). At the end of the laboratory lessons that activities and experiments were conducted by using the same didactic approach in both groups, the pre-service science teachers at experimental group wrote reports at ABSI report format and those at control group wrote their reports at traditional report format. The subjects in laboratory course included in the following five topic: substance-mass-volume, density, simple machines, force-motion and pressure. The data were collected through the “Achievement Test” with 20 open-ended questions, which was designed by researchers, and “Attitude Scale for Science Laboratory” designed by Yamak, Kavak, Canbazoglu-Bilici, Bozkurt and Peder(2012). The findings indicated that ABSI report format increased pre-service science teachers’ achievements. The findings also indicated that there was no statistically significant difference between the groups in terms of pre-service science teachers’ attitudes towards science laboratory.