Breadth and relevance of multivariable inquiry supports deep understanding of science practice

The most important understanding science students should acquire is arguably an understanding of science as a way of knowing, one central to science but not specific to it. Students' own engagement in scientific inquiry and argument can support this developing understanding but does not guarantee it. We report the results of urban adolescents' participation in an extended intervention engaging them in guided inquiry and argument in exploring a multivariable database. Delayed posttest assessments with new content confirmed progress in developing the rich multivariable causal reasoning essential to science. Accompanying this progress was progress in understanding scientific practice, shown in the way students approached reconciling contrasting scientific claims, displaying understanding of when contrasting causal claims conflict with one another and require resolution and when they do not because they work together in a multivariable causal system. Such understanding is a prerequisite to the critical scientific endeavor of resolving diverging claims. Students showed greater benefits in these respects when the intervention activities involved content personally relevant to them and spanned more than one topic

Argument (complex analysis) · Engineering ethics · Epistemology · Intervention (counseling) · Mathematics education · Multivariable calculus · Philosophy of science · Political science · Relevance (law) · Science education · Chemistry · Education and Critical Thinking Development · Educational Strategies and Epistemologies · Psychology · Science Education and Pedagogy

• A Study of Learning Progression During Open Inquiry in Year 9

  Open Access•Sebastian Björnhammer, Jakob Gyllenpalm et al.•Science & Education•2025

  Añadir item

• Argument to Foster Scientific Literacy

  Open Access•Andy R Cavagnetto, Andy Cavagnetto•Review of Educational Research•2010

  Añadir item

• Understanding students' practical epistemologies and their influence on learning through inquiry

  Open Access•William A Sandoval•Science Education•2005

  Añadir item

• Practicing versus inventing with contrasting cases

  Daniel L Schwartz, Catherine C Chase et al.•Journal of Educational Psychology•2011

  Añadir item

• Teaching and learning science as argument

  Open Access•Deanna Kuhn•Science Education•2010

  Añadir item

• The place of argumentation in the pedagogy of school science

  Paul Newton, Paul E Newton et al.•International Journal of Science…•1999

  Añadir item

• Enhancing the quality of argumentation in school science

  Open Access•Jonathan Osborne, Sibel Erduran et al.•Journal of Research in Science…•2004

  Añadir item

• Science as argument

  Open Access•Deanna Kuhn•Science Education•1993

  Añadir item

• Meta-Analysis of Inquiry-Based Learning

  Open Access•Ard W Lazonder, Ruth Harmsen•Review of Educational Research•2016

  Añadir item

• Argumentation in science education as an evolving concept

  Open Access•Demetris Lazarou, Sibel Erduran et al.•Learning Culture and Social…•2017

  Añadir item

• Explaining the Evidence

  Open Access•David A Lagnado•Explaining the Evidence•2021

  Añadir item

• The development of scientific thinking skills in elementary and middle school

  Open Access•Corinne Zimmerman•Developmental Review•2007

  Añadir item

• When and where do we apply what we learn

  Susan M Barnett, Stephen J Ceci•Psychological Bulletin•2002

  Añadir item