Teaching scientific argumentation to prospective biology teachers

ELSA MEINARDI; LEONOR BONAN; LEONARDO GONZÁLEZ GALLI; AGUSTÍN ADÚRIZ-BRAVO

Winnipeg, Canadá

Congreso; 7th International History Philosophy and Science Teaching Conference; 2003

University of Manitoba and University of Winnipeg

ABSTRACT. This paper presents an instructional unit aimed at examining the skill of scientific argumentation. Philosophy of science has turned to argumentation as a relevant skill; the importance of this in science classes has been highlighted lately. Argumentation as a discursive tool is at the heart of scientific explanation in the classroom. In this paper, we explore the skills of explaining, justifying and arguing, which have been labelled cognitivelinguistic abilities, since they reflect high-order cognitive capacities but at the same time imply producing elaborate texts. We present an instructional sequence directed to pre-service biology teachers. The sequence includes a variety of resources used in individual, small-group and plenary tasks. Among those resources, we propose dramatisation, debates, quizzes, historical episodes. We provide an overview of the sequence, describing the different activities, examining the nature-of-science topics addressed (among them, reasoning patterns and scientific discovery), and showing how these are materialised. A feature of the sequence is that it relates to science teaching in the secondary classroom. This increases the potential meaningfulness of the nature of science for prospective science teachers.. This paper presents an instructional unit aimed at examining the skill of scientific argumentation. Philosophy of science has turned to argumentation as a relevant skill; the importance of this in science classes has been highlighted lately. Argumentation as a discursive tool is at the heart of scientific explanation in the classroom. In this paper, we explore the skills of explaining, justifying and arguing, which have been labelled cognitivelinguistic abilities, since they reflect high-order cognitive capacities but at the same time imply producing elaborate texts. We present an instructional sequence directed to pre-service biology teachers. The sequence includes a variety of resources used in individual, small-group and plenary tasks. Among those resources, we propose dramatisation, debates, quizzes, historical episodes. We provide an overview of the sequence, describing the different activities, examining the nature-of-science topics addressed (among them, reasoning patterns and scientific discovery), and showing how these are materialised. A feature of the sequence is that it relates to science teaching in the secondary classroom. This increases the potential meaningfulness of the nature of science for prospective science teachers.cognitivelinguistic abilities, since they reflect high-order cognitive capacities but at the same time imply producing elaborate texts. We present an instructional sequence directed to pre-service biology teachers. The sequence includes a variety of resources used in individual, small-group and plenary tasks. Among those resources, we propose dramatisation, debates, quizzes, historical episodes. We provide an overview of the sequence, describing the different activities, examining the nature-of-science topics addressed (among them, reasoning patterns and scientific discovery), and showing how these are materialised. A feature of the sequence is that it relates to science teaching in the secondary classroom. This increases the potential meaningfulness of the nature of science for prospective science teachers., since they reflect high-order cognitive capacities but at the same time imply producing elaborate texts. We present an instructional sequence directed to pre-service biology teachers. The sequence includes a variety of resources used in individual, small-group and plenary tasks. Among those resources, we propose dramatisation, debates, quizzes, historical episodes. We provide an overview of the sequence, describing the different activities, examining the nature-of-science topics addressed (among them, reasoning patterns and scientific discovery), and showing how these are materialised. A feature of the sequence is that it relates to science teaching in the secondary classroom. This increases the potential meaningfulness of the nature of science for prospective science teachers.