Adjusting claims as new evidence emerges: Do students incorporate new evidence into their scientific explanations?

Abstract

Constructing explanations of complex phenomena is an important part of doing science and it is also an important component of learning science. Students need opportunities to make claims based on available evidence and then use science concepts to justify why evidence supports the claim. But what happens when new evidence emerges for the same phenomenon? The “claim” portion of the claim, evidence, and reasoning explanation framework is viewed as the most accessible to students. When new evidence suggests that students adjust their current thinking however, do students incorporate this new information and modify their claims? This research utilized a time series research design to explore how students modify their claim over four iterations of one explanation, termed an evolving explanation. As new data were collected and analyzed to provide additional evidence, students needed to evaluate their current claim to see if it took into account all available evidence. This research explores that process including the supports that the teacher provided and the challenges that students faced in developing one claim, over time. The findings indicate that many students face challenges adjusting their claims when new, conflicting evidence emerges, even with class discussion, teacher feedback, and written scaffolds. Several possible reasons exist to account for this challenge. Students may (1) ignore new evidence, (2) find “undoing” their initial idea too cognitively demanding, or (3) simply not have any similar experience from which to build. Providing students with experiences of writing evolving explanations reflects what scientists do, while simultaneously preparing students to become more scientifically proficient.

What Do Students’ Explanations Look Like When They Use Second-Hand Data?

“…Consistent with the policy documents in the USA (Achieve, 2013) and Europe (Osborne & Dillon, 2008), previous studies (Duschl, Schweingruber, & Shouse, 2007;McNeill & Krajcik, 2007;McNeill et al, 2006;Novak & Treagust, 2013;Sandoval & Millwood, 2005;Simon, Erduran, & Osborne, 2006) and standard documents (NRC, 2000(NRC, , 2012 stress that evidence is central to building a scientific explanation.…”

“…Because engaging students in collecting data also engages students in the content, several studies supported students to generate their own evidence (McNeill & Krajcik, 2008;McNeill et al, 2006;Novak & Treagust, 2013;Sandoval & Millwood, 2005;Simon et al, 2006;Songer, 2006) since it helps students to familiarize with the content. To distinguish the differences between data sources, we refer to data generated by students as first-hand data, and data generated by others' data as second-hand data.…”

“…Each group had an iPad for accessing all the data and writing their explanations. Collecting their own data during the field experiences provided a contextualized experience for students (Krajcik & Starr, 2001;Laru, Järvelä, & Clariana, 2012;Maldonado & Pea, 2010;Novak & Treagust, 2013;Rogers et al, 2004;Songer, 2006), and students wrote explanations to examine the health of a stream in their community (Krajcik & Starr, 2001;Maldonado & Pea, 2010;Novak & Treagust, 2013).…”

“…To answer this question, we analyzed the quality of students' explanations after visiting WP. When analyzing these explanations, we focused on how students justify their claims by using evidence (Kuhn et al, 2012;McNeill et al, 2006;Novak & Treagust, 2013;Sandoval & Millwood, 2005;Simon et al, 2006). When analyzing the health of WP, students also had access to the data collected by their peers in the same day from WP.…”

Implementación de la metodología ABP (Aprendizaje Basado en Problemas) en estudiantes de último año de la carrera de Nutrición

“…A partir de ahora, la formación de los docentes y la asunción de los nuevos modelos educativos, se convierte en otro de los factores importantes del proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje (Esteban, 2005). En el que tienen que estar cada vez más formados, actualizados en las últimas evidencias empíricas (Novak, 2017), y tener la capacidad de influir y mediar con el alumnado (Warren, 2017). De este modo, se produce una adaptación del docente como "única fuente de formación o información" hacia a ser un orientador para desempeño de tareas y utilización de herramientas o recursos de forma atractiva (Warren, 2017); y que sea el propio alumnado quiénes puedan conformar su propio conocimiento (Gálvez, 2007).…”