How preservice and in‐service elementary teachers engage student avatars in scientific argumentation within a simulated classroom environment

Abstract

Engaging students in scientific argumentation is a hallmark of high‐quality science instruction. Despite the importance of this practice, it is not a ubiquitous one within K‐12 classrooms since scientific argumentation is complex and difficult to learn how to do well. In this study, we examined similarities and differences in how preservice teachers (PSTs) and in‐service teachers (ISTs) facilitate an argumentation‐focused discussion with five upper elementary student avatars in an online, simulated classroom. Developing a better understanding of how science teachers at different stages of their career foster scientific argumentation will support teacher educators and researchers in designing more directed interventions to scaffold teacher learning of this complex practice. Findings showed that most teachers provided opportunities for students to engage in both argument construction and critique during these discussions. In addition, both PSTs and ISTs frequently prompted students to reference data or observations to engage in argument construction and were most likely to prompt students to agree or disagree and explain the reason for their agreement or disagreement to engage in argument critique. Finally, findings showed that ISTs used a wider variety of talk moves and used them more frequently in an integrated fashion throughout the discussions to engage the students in scientific argumentation. Implications for studying and promoting teacher learning of this complex teaching practice and for integrating simulated classrooms as practice‐based tools in science teacher education and professional development settings are discussed.

The Impact of Inquiry-Based Online Learning With Virtual Laboratories on Students’ Scientific Argumentation Skills

“…Scientific argumentation is a higher-order thinking skill that is the main focus of education in the 21st century (Guilfoyle & Erduran, 2021;Noviyanti et al, 2021). This is also one of the core practices that must be implemented in science learning (Loper et al, 2019;Mao et al, 2018;Mikeska & Lottero-Perdue, 2022). This is because scientific argumentation skills affect conceptual understanding (Greene et al, 2018;Jin & Kim, 2021;Larrain et al, 2019;Ping et al, 2020;, are related to critical thinking skills (Convertini, 2021;Giri & Paily, 2020;Hong & Talib, 2018;Kuhn, 2019), can promote scientific literacy (Archila et al, 2018;Chen, 2019;Yacoubian & Khishfe, 2018), can improve scientific reasoning (Sari & El Islami, 2020), can develop analytical thinking skills (Perdana et al, 2019), can develop reflective thinking skills (Gulen & Yaman, 2019), can develop innovative thinking (Turabova, 2021), can support social collaboration (Henderson et al, 2018), can increase awareness of the surrounding environment (Faize & Akhtar, 2020), and is needed in expressing opinions, making decisions, and solving problems in everyday life (Songsil et al, 2019).…”

Fluidmistar Media in Inquiry to Improve the Creative Thinking Skills of Senior High School Students

“…Teachers need learning aids to facilitate delivery and explanation of material during the learning process. Technology development can be utilized to maximize the learning process (Mikeska & Lottero-Perdue, 2022). Teachers are expected to create and apply innovative and creative media.…”

Experienced Teaching Assistants’ Perceptions of a Simulated Environment for Facilitating Discussions with Individual Student Avatars from a Design Team in Conflict

“…The sim voices and moves the avatars using hardware and the Mursion® software system. Scenario authenticity, avatar realism, and the value of the simulated experience has been examined by other work in the simulation literature [18], [19].…”