Argumentation In Science Education: Perspectives From Classroom-based Research (science & Technology Education Library)

Argumentation in Science Education: Perspectives from Classroom-Based Research Sibel Erduran • María Pilar Jiménez-Aleixandre Editors Argumentation in Science Education Perspectives from Classroom-Based Research Sibel Erduran University of Bristol United Kingdom ISBN 978-1-4020-6670-2 María Pilar Jiménez-Aleixandre Universidade de Santiago de Compostela Spain e-ISBN 978-1-4020-6669-6 Library of Congress Control Number: 2007938905 © 2007 Springer Science + Business Media B.V. No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Printed on acid-free paper. 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 springer.com Dedication To my parents, Ayten Erduran, whose life was evidence of compassion, courage and intellectual curiosity, and Erol Erduran, whose wisdom, intellect and humour justify his being the greatest educator I have known. (S. E.) To my parents, María Pilar Aleixandre-Parra, who left me as heritage the thirst for knowledge, and Miguel Jiménez-Gan, who taught me that all claims should be reasoned and justified. (M. P. J.-A.) Preface Our conversations about arguments began in Nashville in the Spring of 1996 in Richard Duschl’s doctoral seminar that we were both attending, Marilar Jiménez-Aleixandre as a visiting scholar at Vanderbilt University. Jiménez-Aleixandre and Duschl were designing authentic problems in genetics for the University of Santiago de Compostela-based RODA project aimed at engaging high school students in argumentation. Erduran and Duschl had been working on Project SEPIA extending their work in Pittsburgh schools to the design of curricula that support epistemological aspects of scientific inquiry including argumentation. In that spring we attended a NARST session in St Louis, where Gregory Kelly, Steven Druker and Catherine Chen presented a paper about argumentation. As a consequence, a symposium about argumentation was organised (possibly the first of its kind) at the 1997 NARST meeting in Chicago, including papers from Kelly and colleagues and from Jiménez-Aleixandre, Bugallo and Duschl. The symposium was attended, among others, by Rosalind Driver, who had just submitted an application for funding of an argumentation project based at King’s College London, a project Erduran would incidentally work on after Driver’s untimely death. From this time frame in the 1990s to the present day, argumentation studies in science education have increased at a rapid pace, from stray papers for which we were unable to find an appropriate strand in a conference, to a wealth of research base exploring ever more sophisticated issues. Our intention in this book is to provide an account of the state-of-the-art research in the field. We are grateful to the leading scholars who contributed to the book and who engaged with us in productive interactions during the last two years. We are indebted to Larry Yore for plenty of good advice and to University of Santiago de Compostela who supported Erduran’s visit to Santiago for one month