Abstract

ORTIZ BENAVIDES, Fedra Lorena  and  FERNANDEZ IZQUIERDO, Pablo. Instructional design for scientific argumentation on line. Interdisciplinaria [online]. 2016, vol.33, n.2, pp.231-249. ISSN 1668-7027.

Teaching argumentation is a strategy of great interest within the community involve in the study of didactic in science since there are numerous studies showing the relationship between the development of scientific thought and the argumentation structured processes (Khun, 2008), however in virtual learning environments teaching argumentation is a relatively new issue and therefore constitutes a challenge for the instructional designer of the virtual course. Collaborative learning in virtual environments is a strategy implemented in recent years in such contexts under the assumption that computer-mediated and asynchronously communication facilitates the maintenance of dialogue (Schwarz & Glassner, 2003). However, studies indicate that these students' dialogues in virtual forums can be weak and based on beliefs not justified instead of using reasons articulated between theory and evidence, otherwise can be characterized because students within the group accept explanations without paying enough attention on the relationship between a statement and the available evidence and therefore readily accepted arguments without making opposition. This condition can be explained because in the context of collaborative internet the problems increase due to issues like complexity of interfaces, decreasing communication channels regarding classroom situations, or the ease of students to mask his inactivity within collaborative groups (Peñaloza, García & Espinoza, 2011). Although most researchers agree that the dialogic argumentation promotes the acquisition of scientific concepts, also they say it is difficult to integrate the teaching of argumentation structured processes into a virtual course of experimental science as well as evaluating appropriation of concepts through arguments. In this paper the results of an investigation conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of an instructional design based on structured argument process in the development of the argumentative capacity of higher education students enrolled in an online course biotechnology is presented. The population under investigation corresponds to higher education students of both sexes who are enrolled in a Biotechnology online course offered by a distance university in Colombia. Instructional design incorporated three elements: the first is the teaching of Toulmin argumentative model, the second element incorporated was the situated learning context from which the interaction is developed and for this study corresponds to a Biotechnology theme and the third component included the design and development of techno-didactic mediations to promote educational interactivity where virtual learning objects, guide activities and assessment rubrics were included. These elements were incorporated into the virtual course within the Moodle 2.1 platform. Moreover, learning strategy based on dialogic argument was developed in four stages: (a) scientific research, (b) argumentative paper development, (c) counter argument, and (d) scientific consensus. To evaluate the effectiveness of instructional design and online learning strategy based on dialogic argumentation an experimental design was conducted with a control group and post-test. The assessment of the argumentative capacity was performed by applying the online assessment tool for dialogic argumentation proposed by Clark and Sampson (2008). This model evaluates the argumentative process in the virtual forum both individually and group. Data were analyzed with non -parametric statistical tests. The research results indicated significant differences in the level of argumentative competence in the experimental group compared with the control group. The experimental group had higher ratings on their ability to structure texts, support arguments within the group and make reasoned opposition to reach consensus. Also, results of this research support the design and learning strategy based on the argument for virtual environments and shown it can be effective to increase the academic performance of students participating in collaboration online forums. Students in the control group did not performed opposition, and, most students in the experimental group achieved level three opposition on the scale of Clark and Sampson (2008), this aspect indicates the need to develop strategies to increase the level of opposition.

Keywords : Scientific argumentation; Argumentative skill; Toulmin's Argument Pattern; Dialogic argument; Discussion forums online; Science education.

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