Effect of productive discussion on written argumentation in earth science classrooms

Abstract

Active teachers noted persistent problems in their classrooms, including low levels of student engagement and gaps in students’ use of evidence in forming arguments. Earth Science students provided written responses to two questions using the previously implemented Claim, Evidence, Reasoning (CER) framework. The first question was answered without a preceding discussion whereas the second question was answered following a discussion protocol—no discussion, discussion without Talk Science, and discussion with Talk Science. A ninth grade teacher more comprehensively implemented Talk Science by incorporating statements from all four goals whereas a seventh grade teacher did not. As a result, ninth grade students improved their use of evidence, reasoning, and content, but seventh graders did not show the same improvements. All students valued the discussion, but this study shows that Talk Science discussions can be used to improve students’ content knowledge and CER argumentation skills.

Keywords:

• Argumentation
• discussion
• Talk Science
• writing

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Molly Schauffler, Mindi Summers, Jill Zarestky, and two anonymous reviewers for comments on this manuscript. William Schlager, Casey Wilkins, and John Seekins contributed to rubric design and scored countless student responses. We are especially grateful to the numerous MainePSP teachers and RiSE Center staff and faculty with whom we collaborated during this research.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under grant [0962805]. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.