Student Difficulties in Socio‐scientific Argumentation and Decision‐making Research Findings: Crossing the borders of two research lines

Abstract

Students' poor argumentation in the context of socio‐scientific issues has become a concern in science education. Identified problems associated with student argumentation in socio‐scientific issues are misevaluation of evidence, naïve nature of science conceptualizations, and inappropriate use of value‐based reasoning. In this theoretical paper, the authors propose that incorporation of decision‐making research findings to argumentation research may help students overcome these problematic areas. For this aim, decision‐making research findings about value‐focused decision‐making framework and common heuristics have been discussed. Specifically, the authors propose that explicit teaching of argumentation research should provide students a decision‐making framework in which students can consider their values about a socio‐scientific issue and assess different alternatives as well as incorporate teaching about common heuristics. The authors believe that this incorporation is necessary for a quality student argumentation in socio‐scientific issues.

Keywords:

• Argumentation
• Literature review
• Nature of science
• Socio‐scientific argumentation
• Decision‐making
• Heuristics