Abstract
The primary objective of this paper is to provide a review of research on argumentation in science education based on publications from 1998 to 2014 in three science education journals. In recent years, the teaching and learning argumentation (i.e. the coordination of evidence and theory to support or refute an explanatory conclusion, model or prediction) has emerged as a significant educational goal. Argumentation is a critically important discourse process in science and it should be taught and learned in the science classroom as part of scientific inquiry and literacy. Argumentation stresses the evidence-based justification of knowledge claims, and it underpins reasoning across STEM domains. Our aim in this study was to investigate how argumentation has been positioned within the publications of three top academic journals: Science Education, International Journal of Science Education, and Journal of Research in Science Teaching. A methodology for content analysis of the journals is described using quantitative and qualitative techniques. One of the contributions of our analysis is the illustration that researchers studying argumentation from a linguistic perspective have been emphasizing related concepts in different ways. While the emphasis has been on discourse and discussion across all journals, the related concepts of talk, conversation, dialogue and negotiation were observed to a lesser extent. Likewise, the fine-level analysis of the key epistemic concepts such as reasoning, evidence and inquiry indicates variation in coverage. The findings can provide evidence-based indicators for where more emphasis needs to be placed in future research on argumentation, and in particular they can provide guidelines for journals in soliciting articles that target underemphasized aspects of argumentation in science education.
Highlights
The primary objective of this paper is to provide a review of research on argumentation in science education based on publications from 1998 to 2014 in three science education journals
We focus on the argumentation studies in top science education journals in order to contribute to the understanding of the development of argumentation theory in science education in relation to their foundational grounding in relation to the epistemic and linguistic aspects
Trends across years and across journals In order to identify chronological trends in the argumentation literature across the timeframe covered, we looked for the number of argumentation articles published each year in each of the journals
Summary
The primary objective of this paper is to provide a review of research on argumentation in science education based on publications from 1998 to 2014 in three science education journals. Content analysis of journals provides researchers with insight into recent and emerging trends of key themes in the literature (e.g. Chang et al 2010; Lee et al 2009; Lin et al 2014). Another significant aspect of journal content analysis is that it can provide evidence-based indicators for where more emphasis needs to be placed in research in order to understand how to improve the educational sector (Foreman-Peck & Winch 2010). Content analysis of journals can be useful in conceptualizing recent trends (e.g. Lee et al 2009), forging new levels of interpretation of the literature (e.g. Anderson et al 2006) and providing synthesis of ideas (e.g. Slavin et al 2009)
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