Using Argument-Driven Inquiry to Enhance Students' Argument Sophistication When Supporting a Stance in the Context of Socioscientific Issues

• Other Authors: Grooms, Jonathon A. (authoraut)
• Format: Others
• Language: English; English
• Published: Florida State University
• Subjects: Education
• Online Access: http://purl.flvc.org/fsu/fd/FSU_migr_etd-3950

This quasi-experimental study assesses the extent to which the Argument-Driven Inquiry (ADI) instructional model enhances undergraduate students' abilities to generate quality arguments supporting their stance in the context of a Socioscientific Issue (SSI) as compared to students experiencing a traditional style of instruction. Enhancing the quality of undergraduate students' arguments in the context of SSI can serve as an indirect measure of their scientific literacy and their ability to make sound decisions on issues that are inherently scientific but also involve social implications. Data collected in this study suggest that the undergraduate students experiencing the ADI instruction more readily provide rationales in their arguments supporting their decisions regarding two SSI-tasks as compared to a group of undergraduate students experiencing traditional instruction. This improvement in argument quality and gain in scientific literacy was achieved despite the overall lower SSI related content knowledge of the ADI students. Furthermore, the gap between the argument quality of those students with high versus low SSI related content knowledge was closed within the ADI group, while the same gap persisted post-intervention within the traditional instruction students. The role of students' epistemological sophistication was also investigated, which showed that neither instructional strategy was effective at shifting students' epistemological sophistication toward an evaluativist stance. However, the multiplists within the ADI group were able to significantly increase the sophistication of their arguments whereas the traditional students were not. There were no differences between the quality of arguments generated by the evaluativist students with either the treatment or comparison groups. Finally, the nature of the justifications used by the students revealed that the students (both comparison and treatment groups) did not invoke science-based justifications when supporting their stance, despite students' self-reports that scientific content knowledge accounted for the greatest influence on their stance, related to the SSI tasks. The results of this study suggest that the scientific habits of mind the students learned in the context of ADI investigations are transferred to the novel SSI contexts. Implications for the use of argument-based instructional models to enhance the generation of socioscientific arguments and to promote the development of scientific literacy are also discussed. === A Dissertation submitted to the School of Teacher Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. === Spring Semester, 2011. === March 16, 2011. === Transfer, Socioscientific Issues, Argumentation, Undergraduate Science, Epistemology, Science Literacy, Science Education === Includes bibliographical references. === Victor Sampson, Professor Directing Dissertation; Simon Capstick, University Representative; Sherry Southerland, Committee Member; Allan Jeong, Committee Member.