Middle Scool Students' Informal Reasoning Quality, Attitudes Towards Socioscientific Issues and Motivation to Learn Science

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2022-12-2
Manay, Büşra
The aim of the present study was investigating the relationship between students’ informal reasoning quality regarding socio-scientific issues (SSI), attitudes toward SSI and their motivation to learn science. Data were obtained by using Informal Reasoning on SSI questionnaire, Pupils’ Attitudes Towards Socio-scientific Issues (PASSI) and Students’ Motivation toward Science Learning (SMTSL). The participants were 523 middle school students in 7th and 8th grades in Artuklu district of Mardin. Correlational research approach was used. The data were analyzed by using Pearson correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis. Pearson correlation analysis results revealed that there was a significant and positive correlation between students' informal reasoning quality scores and the variety of informal reasoning modes they use. In fact, the results of multiple regression analysis showed that self-efficacy and relevance institution significantly contributed to the prediction of informal reasoning quality of middle school students. However, it was observed that other sub-dimensions of motivation and attitude did not contribute to the estimation of students' informal reasoning. It also has been found that the informal reasoning quality of middle school students is low. The reason might be that students are not familiar with socio-scientific issues. The integration of socio-scientific issues into science classes might be helpful for increasing their informal reasoning quality.

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Citation Formats
B. Manay, “Middle Scool Students’ Informal Reasoning Quality, Attitudes Towards Socioscientific Issues and Motivation to Learn Science,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2022.