Journal article

Publication year: 2008

Pages: 101-131

Journal: Journal of Research in Science Teaching

Volume number: 45

Issue number: 1

ISSN: 0022-4308

eISSN: 1098-2736

Open access status: Bronze

DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.20213

Publisher: Wiley

Abstract: 
In this study we investigated junior high school students' processes of argumentation and cognitive development in science and socioscientific lessons. Detailed studies of the relationship between argumentation and the development of scientific knowledge are rare. Using video and audio documents of small group and classroom discussions, the quality and frequency of students' argumentation was analyzed using a schema based on the work of Toulmin (1958). In parallel, students' development and use of scientific knowledge was also investigated, drawing on a schema for determining the content and level of abstraction of students' meaning-making. These two complementary analyses enabled an exploration of their impact on each other. The microanalysis of student discourse showed that: (a) when engaging in argumentation students draw on their prior experiences and knowledge; (b) such activity enables students to consolidate their existing knowledge and elaborate their science understanding at relatively high levels of abstraction. The results also suggest that students can acquire a higher quality of argumentation that consists of well-grounded knowledge with a relatively low level of abstraction. The findings further suggest that the main indicator of whether or not a high quality of argument is likely to be attained is students' familiarity and understanding of the content of the task. The major implication of this work for developing argumentation in the classroom is the need to consider the nature and extent of students' content-specific experiences and knowledge prior to asking them to engage in argumentation. (c) 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Harvard Citation style: von Aufschnaiter, C., Erduran, S., Osborne, J. and Simon, S. (2008) Arguing to learn and learning to argue: Case studies of how students' argumentation relates to their scientific knowledge, Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 45(1), pp. 101-131. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.20213

APA Citation style: von Aufschnaiter, C., Erduran, S., Osborne, J., & Simon, S. (2008). Arguing to learn and learning to argue: Case studies of how students' argumentation relates to their scientific knowledge. Journal of Research in Science Teaching. 45(1), 101-131. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.20213