Nature of Science Knowledge and Scientific Argumentation Skills in Taiwanese College Biology Students

Although many believe that students with mature understanding of NOS engage in argumentation more, mixed results were found in empirical studies. In argumentation studies, consensus assessment was lacking and most researchers only evaluated the structural aspects of argumentation. However in the science classroom, an assessment that examines the "content correctness" in addition to the "structural complexity" is necessary because scientific argumentation that is structurally complicated but full of misconceptions cannot be considered strong. Therefore, the goal of this study was first to develop a method to evaluate the quality of students' scientific argumentation in both the content and structure aspects. The second goal was to examine to what extent NOS knowledge and argumentation skills correlate. Furthermore, through semi-structured interview, this study documented students' NOS understandings in the target aspects of NOS.;Significant correlation between NOS and argumentation was found in the first year of the study. Although no correlation between NOS and argumentation was found in follow-up study, the score distribution implied that students with mixed views of NOS engaged more in scientific argumentation in which specific scientific data were required to support their claims. The qualitative analysis of students' NOS interview revealed that students with strong argumentation skills view science as an open entity that may be challenged and discussed. Further, all of the interview participants placed high values on empirical support. The majority of the participants held the misconception about theories and laws, and expressed that the theory of evolution is less persuasive than other theories because some parts of the supporting evidence lack empirical support.