The Effects of Explicit Scientific Argumentation Instruction through Practical Work on Science Process Skills

Irene Lue Leh Ping,Lilia Halim,Kamisah Osman

doi:10.30870/jppi.v5i2.5931

Irene Lue Leh Ping, Lilia Halim + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.30870/jppi.v5i2.5931

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Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of incorporating explicit instruction of scientific argumentation through practical work on 10th grade students’ skills in science process. This research used a quasi-experimental method which involved one control group and two experimental groups from two national secondary schools in the category of rural school were involved in this study. A total of 112 10th grade students from the three classrooms were assigned randomly as the conventional (CON) group, experimental group with Inquiry without Argument approach (IWA) group and the Modified Argument-Driven Inquiry approach (MADI) group. In order to evaluate the effects of intervention on the tenth-grade students, Science Process Skills Test (SPS Test) was administered as pre-test and post-test on the control and experimental groups. Data collected from the experimental study were described by means of descriptive analysis and inferential analysis involving ANOVA analyses. The results of ANOVA showed there exist significant differences in science process skills among the three groups where students in the MADI group showed better performance compared to the other groups. The results of this research have implication on researchers and practitioners keen on promoting biology science process skills through instructions of scientific argumentations given explicitly in learning environments of science practical work.

Highlights

Literacy in science has become the core aim of science education initiatives and science process skills are one of the common dimensions of scientific literacy in developed western societies
In Malaysia, science process skills are one of the seven new elements introduced into the existing science curriculum/ subject syllabus in view of the requirements of the 21st century since 2001 (Ministry of Education 2001) and it is continue to be stated as an integral component of the Malaysia’s science education goals that is to be achieved in Malaysia (Ministry of Education 2013)
The findings provide new intuitiveness for science teachers and instructional designers interested in promoting and supporting argumentation in practical work so that it is more useful and educative

Summary

Introduction

Literacy in science has become the core aim of science education initiatives and science process skills are one of the common dimensions of scientific literacy in developed western societies. A person should have science process skills (SPS) such as to classify, infer, observe, control variables, formulate hypothesis, and experiment which fit all scientific ventures (Durmaz & Mutlu 2017; Lilia Halim 2013; Herlanti et al 2019; Yuliskurniawati et al 2019). One of important part of scientific inquiry is science process skills. Durmaz and Mutlu (2017) and Yuliskurniawati et al (2019) mentioned that science process skills are playing as key role to develop the understanding in procedure and concept and the scientific knowledge. Science process skills are called as science inquiry skills (Segumpan 2001; Kuhn & Pease 2008; Gobert et al 2013; Fang et al 2016) or competence in scientific inquiry or science practices (Arnold et al 2018)

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