Argumentation as Inquiry: Students’ Engagement With Uncertainty in Written Arguments

Abstract

In science education, analyses of students’ arguments often focus on their ability to reduce uncertainty by supporting or rejecting claims. We contend that argumentation is part of scientific inquiry, where it functions not only to reduce, but also to maintain and raise uncertainties. We present an analysis of written arguments from a laboratory course designed to provide opportunities for students to encounter scientific uncertainty and illustrate how students in this course were able to engage with uncertainty to motivate, extend and deepen their scientific inquiry. We describe the features of the design that allowed for this engagement and suggest that more attention be paid to the varied roles of argumentation in scientific inquiry.