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Side NoteFound that having students engage in explanation changes or refines their image of science as well as enhances their understanding of the nature of science (Bell & Linn, 2000). Third, onstructing explanations can enhance the students’ understandings of the
SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATION
Why Scientific Explanations?Science education reform efforts call for students to
develop scientific processes and skills through inquiry
(American Association for the Advancement of Science,
1993; National Research Council, 1996). One prominent
inquiry practice in both the standards documents and
research literature is the construction, analysis, and
communication of scientific explanations. We believe that
explanation construction should be an important part of
science class for three reasons. First, research into
scientists’ practices portrays a picture where scientists
construct arguments or explanations including weighing
evidence. For example, students may say, “Since fat and soap have different densities and
melting points, they are different substances.” In this example, the reasoning supporting the
link between claim and evidence is not explicit. You want to help students learn to include
the scientific background knowledge that allowed them to make that connection between
claim and evidence. They should include the scientific principles that different substances
have different properties.
How To Support Students’ Constructionof Scientific ExplanationsMany middle school children will find constructing scientific explanations as difficult. It is not
an inquiry skill that they can learn quickly. Students need support in terms of when, how,
and why to use the claim/evidence/reasoning framework. We suggest using a number of
techniques during the unit to help students with this new inquiry process. Some of these
techniques are embedded in the curriculum materials. We also encourage you to use them
during classroom discussions in order to make explanation an important component of
everyday classroom practice.
1. Make the framework explicit. You want to help students understand the three
components of explanations. They should understand what these three components
are as well as the definitions of the three components.
2. Model the construction of explanations. After introducing explanations, you
want to model how to construct explanations through your own talking and writing.
When it is appropriate, provide students with examples of explanations. Furthermore,
identify for students where the claim, evidence, and reasoning were in your own
example.
3. Encourage students to use explanations in their responses. During class
discussions, if a student makes a claim ask them to provide an explanation for that
claim. Encourage students to provide evidence and reasoning to support their claims.
4. Have students critique explanations. When students write explanations in class,
you may want to have them trade their explanations with a neighbor and critique
each other’s explanations. Focus students’ attention on discussing both the strengths
and weaknesses of their partners’ explanations and offering concrete suggestions for
improvement. Instead, you may want to show students an overhead of a generic
student’s response and as a class critique the explanation. Or you may want to
provide students with an example of a scientific explanation from a newspaper,
magazine or website. Then you could have students critique the explanation in terms
of the claim, evidence, and reasoning.
5. Provide students with feedback. When students construct explanations,
comment on their explanation as a whole as well as the quality of the individual
components. You may want to coach them on how to improve their explanations by
asking them leading questions or providing them with examples. For example, you
may want to ask students what the reasoning was in their explanation and how they
might improve their reasoning.
While supporting students’ construction of scientific explanations can be a time-consuming
process, there are numerous benefits. Helping students understand and be able to construct
explanations can result in a greater understanding of science content and science as an
inquiry process.
References
American Association for the Advancement of Science. (1993). Benchmarks for science literacy. New York: Oxford University Press.
Barron, B., Schwartz, D., Vye, N., Moore, A., Petrosino, A., Zech, L., Bransford, J., & The Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt. (1998). Doing with understanding: lessons from research on problem- and project-based learning. The Journal of the Learning Sciences. 7 (3&4), 271-311.
Bell, P., & Linn, M. (2000). Scientific arguments as learning artifacts: Designing for learning from the web with KIE. International Journal of Science Education. 22 (8), 797-817.
Driver, R., Newton, P. & Osborne, J. (2000). Establishing the norms of scientific argumentation in classrooms. Science Education. 84 (3), 287-312.
Herrenkohl, L. R., Palinscar, A. S., DeWater, L. S., & Kawasaki, K. (1999). Developing Scientific Communities in Classrooms: A Sociocognitive Approach. The Journal of the Learning Sciences. 8(3&4), 451-493.
Kuhn, D. (1993) Science as argument: Implications for teaching and learning scientific thinking. Science Education, 77, 319-338.
National Research Council. (1996). National Science Education Standards. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
Newton, Paul. (1999). The Place of Argumentation in the Pedagogy of School Science. International Journal of Science Education, 21 (5), 553-576
Toth, E. E., Klahr, D., Chen, Z. (2000). "Bridging research and practice: A cognitively based classroom intervention for teaching experimentation skills to elementary school children." Cognition & Instruction 18(4): 423-4