Investigating the use of case-oriented station technique in teaching socio-scientific issues: A mixed method study

This research aims to investigate the effect of teaching the socio-scientific issues, "Global Warming, Sustainable development and Bio-technology" in 8th class, with the case-oriented station technique on the academic achievement of the students and their motivation toward science learning. The study was carried out with 71 students in 8th class in 2 secondary schools of a district with approximately 20.000 population in the Eastern Anatolia Region. The mixed-method, consisting of the data collected as qualitatively and quantitatively, was employed. In the quantitative part of the study, the Socio-scientific issues Achievement Test and the Science Learning Motivation Scale developed by Dede and Yaman (2008) to measure students' motivation to learn were used. Unstructured interview, which is one of the qualitative research methods, was preferred in order to support the study with student opinions and comments. The Socio-scientific Issues Achievement Test and the Science Learning Motivation Scale were applied to the experimental and control groups as pre-test at the beginning and as post-test at the end of the study. Results indicated that teaching the socio-scientific issues with case-oriented station technique positively affected the students' academic achievements and their motivation toward science learning. Besides, the interviews showed that the students found it useful, fun, remarkable and permanent to learn socio-scientific issues using the case-oriented station technique. © 2020. All Rights Reserved.