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A Framework for Practical work, Argumentation and Scientific Literacy to plan research. Ros Roberts York, June 2011. Delimiting the ideas. Science education literature: practical work; argumentation; scientific literacy Different theoretical approaches, traditions and cultures
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A Framework for Practical work, Argumentation and Scientific Literacy to plan research Ros Roberts York, June 2011
Delimiting the ideas • Science education literature: practical work; argumentation; scientific literacy • Different theoretical approaches, traditions and cultures • Resultant lack of clarity • Development of a delimited, internally coherent, parsimonious framework that can be used to frame research
Scientific literacy • A range of definitions • Understand what science does • through to a more ‘empowered’ and active role; engagement, challenge, decisions • Understanding evidence is important for all these definitions
Procedural Understanding:Understanding Ideas about Evidence • Royal Society’s motto: Nullius in verba • ‘Take nobody’s word for it!’ • Science is based on evidence, not opinion • Evidence: a link between practical work, argumentation and scientific literacy
The Concepts of Evidence (Gott, Duggan and Roberts) • These are the ideas that are needed to develop a procedural understanding • They act as a Domain Specification: • the basis for the selection of curriculum content • the basis for our teaching and teaching materials • and the basis of assessment (understanding, application and synthesis, evaluation) • http://www.dur.ac.uk/rosalyn.roberts/Evidence/cofev.htm
The structure for an argument Toulmin (1958) argumentation data qualifier claim warrant rebuttal backings secondary backings
Research questions (1) • Does teaching the ideas of evidence – looking forward - improve students’ understanding of evidence? (refs 1, 2) • Does teaching the ideas of evidence – looking forward - improve students’ open-ended investigations? (refs 3, 4) • What are the necessary and sufficient conditions for success in open-ended investigations? (refs 5, 6) • How do students use the ideas of evidence in an investigation? (refs 3, 4) • Does teaching the ideas of evidence – looking forward - enable students to question others’ claims – looking back? (ref 7) • What sort of questions do they ask and which ideas of evidence do they draw on when questioning claims? (ref 7) • Does teaching the ideas of evidence ‘work’ with Turkish ITT students? (ref 8)
Research questions (2) • How do BAEd students evaluate claims? Does an understanding of Toulmin’s Argumentation Pattern aid this? • How does school science prepare Science undergrads to understand evidence, evaluate claims and approach open-ended investigations? • How can we explicitly teach about arguing with evidence? • Etc • Etc
Publications • Roberts, R. and Gott, R. (2004) A written test for procedural understanding: a way forward for assessment in the UK science curriculum? Research in Science and Technological Education 22 (1) pp 5-21 • Roberts, R. and Gott, R. (2006) Assessment of performance in practical science and pupil attributes. Assessment in Education13 (1) pp 45-67 • Roberts, R., Gott, R. and Glaesser, J. (accepted) Students’ approaches to open-ended science investigation: the importance of substantive and procedural understanding. Research Papers in Education • Roberts, R. (2009) Can teaching about evidence encourage a creative approach in open-ended investigations? School Science Review90 (332) pp 31-38 • Glaesser, J., Gott, R., Roberts, R. and Cooper B. (2009) Underlying success in open-ended investigations in science: using qualitative comparative analysis to identify necessary and sufficient conditions. Research in Science and Technology Education 27 (1) pp 5-30 • Glaesser, J., Gott, R., Roberts, R. and Cooper, B. (2009) The roles of substantive and procedural understanding in open-ended science investigations: Using fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis to compare two different tasks. Research in Science Education 39 (4) pp 595-624 • Roberts, R. and Gott, R. (2010) Questioning the Evidence for a claim in a socio-scientific issue: an aspect of scientific literacy. Research in Science & Technological Education, 28 (3) pp 203 – 226 • Roberts, R. and Sahin-Pekmez, E. (accepted) Scientific Evidence as Content Knowledge: a replication study with English and Turkish pre-service primary teachers. European Journal of Teacher Education
For further information please contact • Ros Roberts • Rosalyn.Roberts@dur.ac.uk