Bantie Belay, Ewonetu

Promoting secondary school students scientific argumentation skills through dialogic practical work

By Bantie Belay, Ewonetu

Background: Recipe-based practical work had a negligible effect on developing students’ scientific argumentation skills. Studies suggest that applying dialogic teaching in practical investigations may help students develop meaningful explanations based on evidence. Purpose: This study examined how dialogic practical work can enhance students’ scientific argumentation skills. Design and Method: This study used a quantitative research design. The study participants were 46 secondary school students in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia. The sources of data were the video recordings of the dialogic practical work sessions. The students’ change in scientific argumentation skills was scored using the Assessment of Scientific Argumentation in the Classroom observation protocol. This data was analyzed using a repeated measures Friedman test. Results: The result showed that dialogic practical work in physics laboratories significantly improved secondary school students’ scientific argumentation skills over eight weeks. However, these students who participated in dialogic-practical work still faced difficulties in providing quality evidence to challenge each other’s ideas. Discussion: The finding concluded that dialogic practical work is useful in improving students’ ability for scientific argumentation. Given the growing significance of more social and student-centered strategies, this study might develop secondary school teachers’ awareness of dialogic practical work in laboratories to enhance students’ scientific argumentation skills. © 2024 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.