Research Information System
Science and Education, 2026 (SCI-Expanded, AHCI, SSCI, Scopus)
Nature of Scientific Inquiry (NOSI) is a cornerstone of effective science education, yet research consistently demonstrates that teachers possess inadequate understanding of its aspects. One promising approach to address these challenges is argumentation-driven inquiry, a method that combines argumentation with NOSI aspects and emphasizes the construction, evaluation of evidence-based arguments, and reasoning, which ultimately would result in having an adequate understanding of NOSI. In line with this, this study aims to address these issues by providing teachers with a 10-week-long hybrid argumentation-driven inquiry professional development (PD) program and to investigate the effect on science teachers’ understanding of NOSI and their lesson plan design skills to integrate these concepts. Additionally, the study explores teachers’ perceptions of the impact of the program on their professional growth and the challenges they encountered. The study employed an action research methodology, where teachers acted as active participants by receiving training, then carrying out NOSI-focused classroom implementations, reflecting, receiving and providing feedback at each stage in an iterative context. The participants were six (2 females, 4 males) in-service middle school science teachers working in different regions in Türkiye. The data sources included the Views about Scientific Inquiry Questionnaire, argumentation-driven inquiry lesson plans designed by teachers, reflection reports, and focus group interviews. The findings indicated that teachers’ understanding of NOSI aspects and lesson plan design skills notably improved following the interventions with variations in different aspects yet indicating enhanced quality of instructional practices. In line with the results, implications are critically discussed in terms of designing and delivering effective PD programs.