Are science teachers prepared to promote argumentation? A case study with pre-service teachers in Bogotá city

Cademartori and Parra (2004) and Xie and So (2012) recognize that if the school encourages falsifying scientific knowledge using argumentation, this will offer students the possibility of rectifying their own ideas and of promoting the creation of a more critical learning environment. Supporting this idea Archila (2012, 2014ab), Erduran et al. (2006) and Stipcich et al. (2006) mention the necessity of including argumentation in science teacher training programs so as to give the opportunity of future teachers to build their own tools that permit them to promote argumentative skills with students.

Recently, argumentation was included by the first time in the “Second International Handbook of Science Education” edited by Fraser et al. (2012), in a unique section entitled “Argumentation and Nature of Science” which consists of eight chapters in which foundations, progress and challenges of argumentation and science education are discussed. This handbook shows the importance of studying how to use argumentation successfully to help learners construct knowledge socially. On top of that, the role of science teachers is crucial when they design and apply innovative teaching strategies that engage students in the promotion of their argumentative skills (McDonald & McRobbie, 2012; Milne, 2012; Geelan, 2012; Jiménez-Aleixandre & Puig, 2012; Osborne, 2012).

The inclusion of the study of argumentative practices in pre-service science teacher training programs is important to facilitate the creation of science education processes, in which students are invited to understand and use rules of reasoning commonly employed in scientific work, taking them to investigate the reasons, discuss the feasibility of data, and evaluate alternative hypotheses. This process allows them to discover that the natural sciences are more than trying to build and solve problems under specific theoretical models (Muller & Perret-Clermont, 2009).

This article attempts to answer the question “Are science teachers prepared to promote argumentation?” Data comes from a research project developed with 18 pre-service chemistry teachers from a university in Bogotá, Colombia. The training program was underwent a revision to determine the types of possibilities offered to future chemistry teachers so as to help them to promote argumentation. The results of this research demonstrated the necessity of preparing future chemistry teachers to teach students how to learn through argumentation.