Examining the Argumentation Researches at the Science Education in Turkey

The purpose of this study is to analyze the studies performed in the field of science education between years 2004-2016 using argumentation approach, in terms of publication type, workgroup/sample type, topic of the study, and research method. In this regard, online databases, CoHE National Thesis Center, and the booklets of the congress and conferences performed between the mentioned dates were reviewed. Since the objective of the research was set as reviewing the documents obtained from the sources mentioned above, document review, which is a qualitative research method, was used as the research method. In the analysis, the data was categorized for each variable and the documents that are gathered under each category were presented through tables. As a result of the research, it was found that argumentation studies have gained momentum over the years; they reached saturation point in 2014 and after this date a decrease was observed on the number of research. The analysis performed according to publication type showed that the number of articles, papers, and graduate theses are close to each other and their proportion is quite high among the works performed in this field. The review of the topics of study revealed that argumentation approach was mostly used in the researches featuring skill, academic achievement, conceptual understanding, nature of science, and attitude relationship. In addition, the number of studies using qualitative research methods was remarkable. Finally, a set of suggestions on the future researches was submitted.