Argumentation in the Chemistry Laboratory Inquiry

Authors: Dvora Katchevich Avi Hofstein Rachel MamlokNaaman

Publish Date: 2011/11/09

Volume: 43, Issue: 1, Pages: 317-345

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Abstract

One of the goals of science education is to provide students with the ability to construct arguments—reasoning and thinking critically in a scientific context Over the years many studies have been conducted on constructing arguments in science teaching but only few of them have dealt with studying argumentation in the laboratory Our research focuses on the process in which students construct arguments in the chemistry laboratory while conducting various types of experiments It was found that inquiry experiments have the potential to serve as an effective platform for formulating arguments owing to the features of this learning environment The discourse during inquirytype experiments was found to be rich in arguments whereas that during confirmatorytype experiments was found to be sparse in arguments The arguments which were developed during the discourse of an open inquiry experiment focus on the hypothesisbuilding stage analysis of the results and drawing appropriate conclusions

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