Pre-Service Physics Teachers' Argumentation in a Model Rocketry Physics Experience *

Scientific literacy, which was imparted to the literature by Paul Harder in the late 1950's (Laugksch, 2000), is an essential part of education not only for people making a career in science but also for all citizens in today's societies dominated by science and technology (McPhearson, Pollack, & Sable, 2008). In Turkey, the main purpose of the implemented physics curriculum since 2013 has been the development of students' scientific literacy (Milli Egitim Bakanligi [MEB, Ministry of Education], 2013). In this context, some of the sub-objectives of the physics curriculum are to produce scientific knowledge, to justify and evaluate claims based on evidentiary proof, and to share scientific knowledge. To achieve these goals, the new physics curriculum aims to develop students' scientific process skills through a relation between conceptual knowledge (knowledge of physics) and science technology in a social environment (MEB, 2013). However, teachers' beliefs, which are fundamental factors of thinking, motivation, intention and behavior (Bandura, 1977a, 1977b), are the key to the success of reforms (Cheung & Ng, 2000). Teachers are the ones who will transfer the newly prepared curriculum into the classroom (Anthony, 2008), and so if they do not believe in the curriculum they may be reluctant to implement it, may even modify it to fit their own ideas, or even interfere with it (Cheung & Ng, 2000; Czerniak & Lumpe, 1996). Therefore, teachers' pre-service training should also be modified according to the goals of the new curriculum reform.In teachers' pre-service training, science educators are concerned with Schulman's teacher-knowledge model (1986), which is used as an organizational tool in the field of science teacher education. Schulman (1986, 1987) described teacher knowledge as content knowledge, general pedagogical knowledge, curricular knowledge, knowledge of learners, knowledge of educational contexts, and knowledge of the philosophical and historical aims of education. Researchers in science education have redefined and used Schulman's knowledge types in their works with a particular focus on content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and contextual knowledge (Hill, Rowan, & Ball, 2005; Park & Oliver 2008). Content knowledge, or subject matter knowledge (SMK), refers to a teacher's knowledge on a subject that s/he will teach and includes the concepts, ideas, principles, and structures of these knowledge elements. Shulman claimed that "the teacher need not only understand that something is so; the teacher must further understand why it is so. " (1986, p. 9). Teachers should have an in-depth understanding of the subject in order to teach it well. Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) is the knowledge that teachers use to transfer SMK to students. It includes understanding the ways of representing and formulating SMK so as to make it comprehensible for students, how to make learning specific topics easy or difficult for certain age groups of learners, and which preconceptions students bring with them to class (Zhou, 2015). Studies have shown that SMK and PCK affect quality of teaching and, thus, student learning (Baumert et al., 2010; Hill et al., 2005; Kleickmann et al., 2015; Kleickmann et al., 2013). In the COACTIV project from Germany, PCK and SMK were found to be highly correlated (Baumert et al, 2010; Krauss et al., 2008). Because SMK is not sufficient by itself but a necessary condition of PCK (Even, 2011; Friedrichsen et al., 2009; Rozenszajn & Yarden, 2014), without it, PCK cannot be developed (Baumert et al., 2010; Depaepe et al., 2015; Friedrichsen et al., 2009). In this study SMK has been explored in detail.In the literature, teachers' SMK was initially assessed by true-or-false tests (Tatto et al., 2007; Yip et al., 1998, as cited in Abell, 2007), multiple-choice tests (Lawrenz, 1986, as cited in Abell, 2007; Akarsu, 2012; Bogdanovic, 2015; Demircioglu & Ucar, 2015; Hill et al. …