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Argumentation can develop individuals' epistemologies to acknowledge the multiplicity of the ideas and propose, justify, and evaluate the knowledge claims by coordinating them with appropriate evidence. This paper aims to examine how and why argumentation should be incorporated into science instruction addressing various contexts to promote student learning, active engagement, and democratic citizenship. In particular, the socio-scientific contexts can enhance learners' scientific literacy, scientific reasoning, critical thinking, and knowledge of the nature of science about complex scientific issues related to the political, economic, and social aspect of the society. This paper argues for the relationship between scientific literacy, scientific argumentation, and socio-scientific issues to enhance students' thinking about societal problems. The paper examines the historical perspectives related to science teaching and learning and the concept of scientific literacy and addresses the significance of scientific argumentation to promote learners' engagement in the scientific processes and democratic citizenship.

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By using multi-level modeling, this study explores the impact of students' perception of the quality of the teacher-student relationship and family structure on student achievement after controlling for socioeconomic status (SES), school urbanicity, and school control. The data from 750 schools and 17,000 10th grade students were analyzed. Family structure and student's perception of teacher-student relationship, and SES were student-level; school urbanicity and school control were school-level variables. The findings indicated that students, who had a positive perception about their relationship with their teachers, came from families including two biological parents, and had high SES and high math achievement. Students' SES and attending public school in urban areas were found to be significantly related to students' math achievement. The math score for public school students was lower than students from private and Catholic schools. The further research should have a design addressing the impact of these variables in a longitudinal term.

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