Research On Scientific Argumentation And Evaluating The Competence Of Scientific Argumentation

Attending to practice has become one of the significant topics today in science education. As scientific argumentation is a kind of typical scientific practice as well as an important educational practice, it deserves more attention of science education researchers. Based on the existing research of scientific argumentation in domestic and international science education research field, and various education research methods, this study is focused on the theoretical research of the conception, the nature, the characteristics of scientific argumentation and all its elements in science education, and the exploration and construction of multi-dimensional and multi-level criterion system for evaluating students’ competence of scientific argumentation. Based on the argumentation tasks whose context is chemistry, the written and oral capacities of Chinese students in scientific argumentation have been evaluated in empirical study.This study agrees that scientific argumentation is a kind of typical scientific practice reflecting multiple theoretical domains, in the meantime a kind of important educational practice showing discipline features. Scientific educators should definitely understand the diversified educational values in this area, and help students to participate in scientific argumentation effectively on the basis of the characteristics of the subjects, the objects and the particular means of scientific argumentation. In order to get the status of students’ competence of scientific argumentation and offer evidential supports for the research of scientific argumentation teaching, it’s so necessary to evaluate students’ competence of scientific argumentation, and the evaluation criterion system should also be multi-dimensional and multi-level. Through this kind of evaluation, this study found that the students’ competence of scientific argumentation is generally weaker, and influenced by dozens of factors. For both kinds of scientific argumentation, the results reveal not only some common problems of students but also the differencesThe sources and the significances of this study have been discussed in the introduction of this dissertation. Through literature review, the starting points of this study have been determined. In the meanwhile, the contents, the routine and the methods of this study have been discussed too.The first chapter of this dissertation is "The overview of scientific argumentation". Firstly, the conception of argumentation is clearly defined and the connotation of argumentation is well clarified based on etymology and the existing conclusions, and the connotation of argumentation has also been clarified. By distinguishing the conception of argumentation from some other conceptions, the basic characteristics of argumentation are also obtained. Secondly, the multiple theoretical domains of argumentation have been explored in depth from the perspectives of logic, philosophy of science and psychology. Finally, the analysis of the characteristics and the types of scientific argumentation is offered in the last part.The second chapter of this dissertation is "Scientific argumentation as educational practice". This chapter points out that scientific argumentation is a kind of important educational practice reflecting discipline features by putting scientific argumentation into the perspective of science education. The educational characteristics of scientific argumentation are discussed based on its educational values, the characteristics of the subjects and objects and the particular means (methods and modes).The third chapter of this dissertation is "The construction of the general criterion for evaluating the competence of scientific argumentation". The comparative study of the criterions in domestic and international science education research field has been implemented. Based on the conclusions and the characteristics of scientific argumentation, the basic principles and routines of evaluation have been discussed, and the general criterion has been constructed too.The fourth chapter of this dissertation is "Evaluating the competence of written scientific argumentation". In order to evaluate students’ competence of written scientific argumentation, the written scientific argumentation tasks in the context of chemistry have been built at first. Then, the criterion for evaluation has been constructed and improved on the thesis of the theoretical research results and the item response theory. Nearly 600 particular participants have been evaluated on the competence of written scientific argumentation.The fifth chapter of this dissertation is "Evaluating the competence of oral scientific argumentation". Firstly, it is given the construction of the oral scientific argumentation tasks in the context of chemistry, and the qualitative methods for data collection and analysis. Secondly, the performances of 12 dyads from different grades in oral scientific argumentation have also been analyzed.The last chapter summarizes the research conclusion both at theoretical level and empirical level, pointing out the possible innovations and the problems awaiting attention in the future.