Exploring Power Distribution and Its Influence on the Process of Argumentation in a POGIL Biochemistry Classroom

Abstract

In this exploratory case study, we consider how students in an undergraduate biochemistry class engaged in the process of argumentation within an inquiry-oriented learning environment to investigate a chemical mechanism in a particular part of the tricarboxylic acid cycle. Audio/video recordings of student groups during the mechanism discussion were analyzed in a coordinated fashion using three coding frameworks. The first framework examined students’ pattern of argumentation using Toulmin’s Argumentation Pattern model, the second coded the interactions for discursive moves using the Inquiry-Oriented Discursive Moves framework, and the final analysis phase used turn-at-talk counts as a framework to explore how power and authority shift between and among participants in the classroom. This research found that argumentation is supported by structures that provide opportunities for discussion, claims, and rebuttals but that the instructor, acting in nuanced ways through expressions of discursive moves, can also promote or inhibit the argumentative process. We provide suggestions for pedagogical moves in inquiry-oriented classrooms.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Annabel N. Prince

Annabel N. Prince ([email protected]) is an assistant principal of supervision in the New York City Department of Education at Queens High School for the Sciences at York College, City University of New York.

Wesley B. Pitts

Wesley B. Pitts is an associate professor of science education in the Department of Middle and High School at Lehman College, City University of New York.

David W. Parkin

David W. Parkin is an associate professor in the Department of Chemistry at Adelphi University in Long Island, New York.