The Impact of Argument-Based Inquiry Approach on Elementary School Students' Critical Thinking in Elementary School Science Class

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of Argument-based Inquiry approach on elementary school students' critical thinking in elementary school science class. For this purpose, 23 students from two 5th grade elementary school classes in a metropolitan city were selected. One class (11 students) was assigned as the experimental group which Argument-based inquiry approach on 10 topics were applied. To determine the impact of Argument-based Inquiry approach on critical thinking, we analyzed the results of critical thinking tests before and after class and recordings of the discussion process of students in the experimental group. As a result of the critical thinking analysis, the average score of the experimental group in the deduction section was statistically and significantly higher than that of the comparative group. And as a result of analysis of recordings of the discussion process, students used deductive reasoning more often than inductive reasoning, and their use of this reasoning increased significantly at the claim<middle dot>evidence stage.