EFFECT OF INQUIRY BASED LEARNING INTEGRATED ARGUMENTATION ACTIVITIES TO ENHANCE SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATION AND SCIENCE PROCESS SKILLS

Abstract

The purposes of this research were to 1) compare the ability to scientific explanations between before and after learning by inquiry-based learning integrated argumentation activities, and 2) compare science process skills between before and after learning by inquiry-based learning integrated argumentation activities. The target group was 26 seventh-grade students in the second semester of the 2021 academic year, selected using purposive sampling. The research design was a one-group pretest-posttest. The instruments were included: 1) the learning activities in unit 5: thermal energy using inquiry-based learning integrated argumentation for 15 hours, 2) a scientific explanation ability test with five open-ended questions covering the concept of thermal energy.  Each item was divided into 3 parts according to scientific explanation elements namely claim, evidence, and reasoning. The elements were divided into three levels of the answer: good, fair, and improving, and 3) a science process skills test with 30 multiple-choice items. The collected data were analyzed by using means, standard deviation, t-test, and the total students’ scientific explanation ability was weighted by mean score and grouped the data into 3 class intervals (Full score=2).

The research findings were as follow: 1) Students who learned by inquiry-based learning integrated argumentation activities had the posttest means score of scientific explanation abilities higher than the pretest significantly at the .05 level and students had scientific explanation ability in good level (1.75 scores). And 2) students who learned by inquiry-based learning integrated argumentation activities had the posttest means score of science process skills higher than the pretest significantly at the .05 level.