Classroom Argumentation
Arguing from evidence is a fundamental practice in science and in other subject areas. This section provides resources to support teachers, teacher leaders, administrators, and researchers in deepening their understanding of:
- classroom argumentation in science
- how to support classroom argumentation
- how to research student argumentation skills in science
- how to research teachers’ capacity to facilitate and support students’ development of these skills.
One of the most effective ways to support student understanding of core disciplinary ideas and scientific reasoning is to engage them in dialogic discourse. Argumentation is an important form of dialogic discourse that supports student learning across all academic disciplines.
- In English Language Arts, students read, write, and speak grounded in evidence.
- In Mathematics, students construct viable arguments and critique reasoning of others.
- In Science, students engage in argument from evidence.
All teachers, regardless of their subject, are language teachers! The center of this Venn diagram shows that math, English language arts, and science share a common focus on language, and in particular, the use of the language of argumentation to support reasoning.
Argumentation Across the Content Areas, based on work by Tina Cheuk https://ul.stanford.edu