Analysis of the relationships between students' argumentation and their views on nature of science

Publication date: Available online 27 November 2019Source: Learning, Culture and Social InteractionAuthor(s): Marina Martins, Rosária JustiAbstractThe aims of this study are to discuss an alternative way to analyse the relationships between students' argumentation and their views on nature of science (NOS); and to apply such an analytical proposal to investigate relationships between the analyses of students' argumentative reasoning and their views of NOS expressed in a socio-scientific debate. The students' views on NOS are identified from the analysis of the content of their argumentative sentences in the light of recently developed analytical frameworks based on both some of Walton's ideas of critical argumentation and the recognition of the important roles played by several disciplinary areas related to science. The results show that in order to integrate the analytical frameworks it is necessary: to understand the ideas that underlie both analytical frameworks; to apply the analytical framework of argumentation aiming at understanding students' argumentative reasoning; to apply the analytical framework of NOS; and to produce representations of the analysis of students' dialogues, their argumentative clusters (AC), and the disciplinary areas related to science that based each argumentative sentence. Such an integration shows that the more complex AC are the ones that include aspects related to more disciplines of science and that participate in more attack moves.
Source: Learning, Culture and Social Interaction - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research