Christine V. McDonald

Utilising Argumentation to Teach Nature of Science

The quest for the achievement of informed nature of science (NOS) views for all learners continues to inspire science educators to seek out effective instructional interventions to aid in the development of learners’ NOS views. Despite the extensive amount of research conducted in the field, the development of informed NOS views has been difficult to achieve, with many studies reporting difficulties in changing learners’ NOS views. Can engaging learners in argumentation lead to improvements in their NOS views? This review answers this question by examining studies which have explored NOS and argumentation in science education. The review also outlines a rationale for incorporating argumentation in science education, together with a brief overview of important recent studies in the field. Implications drawn from this review suggest that the incorporation of explicit NOS and argumentation instruction, together with consideration of various contextual, task-specific and personal factors which could mediate learners’ NOS views and engagement in argumentation, could lead to improvements in learners’ views of NOS.

Exploring Nature of Science and Argumentation in Science Education

This chapter reviews empirical studies that have examined nature of science (NOS) and argumentation in science education. The review sought to explore the nature of this relationship and examined studies conducted in socioscientific and scientific contexts. A critical review of 23 empirical studies from high-quality science education journals found many similarities regarding the nature of the relationship between NOS and argumentation in both contexts. Assessment studies in both contexts found evidence of the influence of NOS views on reasoning and positive relationships linking informed views of NOS to high-quality argumentation. Intervention studies in both contexts indicate that NOS views influence argumentation, although in different ways. An important point of difference between contexts related to the inclusion of explicit NOS instruction, with socioscientific interventions reporting improvements in NOS views with explicit NOS instruction; whereas scientific interventions reported improvements in NOS views without implementing explicit NOS instruction. The duration of the intervention was also found to be a pivotal factor in the success of the examined studies, with longer interventions producing more favourable results. In addition, studies underpinned by sociocultural perspectives were generally successful in achieving their desired aims.