Developing scientific argumentation strategies using revised argument-driven inquiry (rADI) in science classrooms in Thailand

Scientific argumentation skills are important for students for expressing their opinions, making decisions and solving problems in daily life. Previous studies have focused on students’ scientific argumentation skills, but few studies have proposed an instructional model for specifically developing these skills by creating a supportive classroom atmosphere that considers factors that may influenced on students’ ability to successfully enact argumentation practices. In this study, researchers have adapted the Argument-Driven Inquiry (ADI) model, which is a model that meets several important criteria for fostering argumentation in the classroom and we have revised the model to satisfy practical constraints faced by teachers and students in Thai classroom contexts. In this study, we describe our revised Argument-Driven Inquiry (rADI) model and provide examples of how this model was used to increase students’ scientific argumentation skills when learning about socio-scientific issues. We additionally examine factors, such as gender, reasoning ability, prior experience with scientific argumentation, and content knowledge to determine what influence they may have on students’ post-instruction scientific argumentation skills. Specifically, we examined the effect the rADI model had on students’ abilities after controlling for covariates. We surveyed 155 Grade 10 students to assess their scientific argumentation skills using a set of situational open-ended questions. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation, and ANCOVA. Findings indicated that 1) most students could develop or improve scientific argumentation skills after the instruction in most components, although the supportive argument element tended to be weaker; 2) pretest scientific argumentation skills was correlated with posttest scientific argumentation skills, but gender, content knowledge, and reasoning ability were not correlated with posttest scientific argumentation skills; 3) and after controlling for pretest scientific argumentation skills, students in the experimental group produced higher posttest scores of scientific argumentation skills than those taught by the conventional approach (p < 0.05). Outcomes from our study using the rADI model may be beneficial to teachers who seek to improve students’ scientific argumentation skills in science classrooms in the Thai context. Implications for local and international use of rADI are discussed.