The Purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of using a program depending on argument based inquiry approach via “write- to- learn strategy” on 8th grade students’ abilities of forming scientific mental models. As well as the effect of the interaction between argument based inquiry approach via write to learn strategy method of teaching, and gender on 8th grade students’ abilities of forming scientific mental models. The study was conducted on a purposive sample of 8th grade students (females and males) enrolled at public schools in Jerusalem district. The schools are: Bethany Secondary School for Girls and Al Ma’ahad Al Arabi School for Boys during the second semester of the academic year 2016\2017. The Sample consisted of 152 students of the 8th grade (71 females and 81 males). Students from both schools were assigned to experimental and control group randomly. The experimental group was taught a whole unit by the argument based inquiry approach via “write-to-learn strategy”, while the control group was taught by the traditional method. The experiment lasted for two months. The researcher has prepared an instrument for the study, Self Mental Model Exam. Content validity and reliability was done for it. A pre and post test was done for all of the participants to measure the effect of using a program depending on argument based inquiry approach via “write- to- learn strategy” on 8th grade students’ abilities of forming scientific mental models. The means, standard deviations, and (1-way ANCOVA) test were used in the study. The findings of the study showed that there are statistically significant differences at (α≤ 0.05) in the mean scores of 8th grade students’ abilities to form mental models due to method of teaching in favor of the experimental group, there are statistically significant differences at (α≤ 0.05) in the mean scores of 8th grade students’ abilities to form mental models due to gender in favor of males and there are statistically significant differences at (α≤ 0.05) in the mean scores of 8th grade students’ abilities to form mental models due to the interaction between method of teaching and gender in favor of males in the experimental group. In the light of these results the researcher recommends using the argumentation via “write-to-learn strategy” in teaching science due to its effect in improving students’ skills.
Keywords: Argument Based Inquiry Approach, Mental Models., Write-To-Learn Strategy
