Nowadays, there is a need in science education to consider scientific research and its applications alongside ethical consensus. Even though classroom debates of value issues have been demonstrated to significantly contribute to the raising of social consciousness and awareness, research shows that neither academics in higher education nor…

This study examined how students' science-specific argumentative writing skills and understanding of core ideas changed over the course of a school year as they participated in a series of science laboratories designed using the Argument-Driven Inquiry (ADI) instructional model. The ADI model is a student-centered and writing-intensive approach to…

One of the hallmarks of science and science education is the production of new knowledge about the natural world through objective argument and critique. Teachers' understanding of scientific argumentation impacts how they incorporate this important scientific practice into science classrooms. This study examined how three professional…

Due to the complex nature of global understanding and practice of citizenship, it is essential to understand how to educate for a responsive public sphere with active and emancipated citizens. This study aims to clarify how social movements (through a case illustration of Occupy) are representative of global citizenship goals while illuminating…

Even as an increasing number of universities commit to producing graduates possessing the attributes of "a global citizen", discussions between academics suggest it is common practice to design programme outcomes which include the attribute of global citizenship without advancing discussion as to ways of embedding them in deeper…

Mary Brown recognised that her A-level students were finding extended writing difficult, particularly in terms of guiding the reader through the argument with appropriate "signposting". To help her students manage this, Brown devised a metaphor to represent the construction of a piece of argumentative writing which she deployed over a…

This paper discusses the use of a presentation format known as "Pecha Kucha" (which means "chitchat" in Japanese). The objective of the Pecha Kucha assignment is to facilitate student communication of an argument, including stating and supporting a thesis. Throughout the semester, students become comfortable with the format via…

The article argues that science assessment should change from an item-driven to a construct-driven practice and pay more attention to disciplinary scientific reasoning. It investigates assessment scales developed from a novel theoretical rationale, describing scientific reasoning as three fundamental practices (hypothesizing, experimenting, and…

Scientific inscriptions--graphs, diagrams, and data--and argumentation are integral to generating and communicating scientific understanding. Scientific inscriptions and argumentation are also important to learning science. However, previous research has indicated that learners struggle to understand and learn science content represented in…

The need to enhance argument skills through education has become increasingly evident during the past 20 years. This need has resulted in an ongoing discussion that focuses on students' and teachers' argumentation and its support. However, apart from the extended competence-based discourse, no clear and homogeneous definition exists for…

Given the centrality of the argumentation process to science and consequent importance to science education, inviting science students to engage in argumentation and scaffolding that argumentation in order that it lead to learning and not frustration is important. The present research invites small groups of science content learners (54 preservice…

We observed a student teacher's practice as she taught one unit of instruction. Using a modification of Toulmin's (1958/2003) diagrams, we analyzed her support for collective argumentation by examining questions she asked, parts of arguments she contributed, and the kinds of warrants her students contributed. Our findings suggest reasons she was…

A common practice in mathematics professional development to enhance teachers' content knowledge is to engage them in solving and discussing mathematics tasks. Yet, what is entailed in these experiences and how teacher discussions afford or constrain opportunities to develop teachers' knowledge of mathematics is not fully understood. In this…

This article explores the concepts of "critical questions" (from D. N. Walton, 1996) and "integrative" and "refutational argument stratagems" as an approach for teaching argumentation and critical thinking. A study was conducted for 6 months in 3 sections of a 7th-grade social studies classroom in which 30 students discussed and wrote about…

Autism is a profoundly rhetorical phenomenon. And all--parents, educators, caregivers, policymakers, the public, and autistic people themselves--would be significantly empowered to understand and respond to it as such. In the continuing absence of stable scientific or medical knowledge about autism, one needs to shine a bright and insistent light…