Abstract

The use of evidence is very important in scientific argumentation. This study investigated the types and levels of evidence in scientific argumentation in an elementary science class. 34 fourth graders in a class were selected as subjects, and argumentation was performed in seven lessons on 'Heat transfer and our lives' unit. Small group argumentation was recorded, transcribed and used as data for analyses. The analyses found the following results. First, in regard of the types of evidence, personal evidence dominated over authority-based evidence. Second, in the analysis of the levels of evidence, using inappropriate evidence was found to account for the highest percentage, followed by using appropriate evidence and just arguments without evidence. There were quite a lot of cases of arguments without evidence. It was found that the types and levels of evidence that students used could change depending on the relevance between experiments and argument tasks.

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