Student Decision Making in a Scenario-based Investigation of an Ecosystem

Abstract

Argumentation is an important component of scientific education (Osborne, 2010). However, how students create and evaluate competing arguments in scientific investigations is a complex construct, which presents significant challenges for assessment. We engaged 349 middle and high school students in a virtual scientific investigation based on an authentic problem involving the ecosystem of Yellowstone National Park. Students evaluated three possible causes for vegetation loss in Lamar Valley: tourism, global warming, and killing wolves. Students compared their responses to individual claims to formulate a final decision. The authors developed a coding system to assess student arguments and analysed how students changed their evaluations across the investigation. Four distinct levels of responses reveal the range of student decision making and patterns that have implications for instruction and assessment. Few student evaluations explained both merits and weaknesses of claims.

Exploring students’ dominant approaches to handling epistemic uncertainty when engaging in argument from evidence

“…Other literature has shown that students tend to rely on personal reasoning to navigate uncertainty rather than scientific knowledge (Chinn and Brewer, 1998;Evagorou et al, 2012;Mehl et al, 2020;Puig and Evagorou, 2023). For example, Puig and Evagorou (2023) found that pre-service teachers often relied on their own personal experiences to evaluate the credibility of a news headline about COVID-19 instead of the scientific knowledge they were learning in the course.…”