Development and implementation of the science-technology-society learning unit to enhance grade 10 student’s scientific argumentation

The National Education Act B.E. 2542 (Office of the National Education Commission, 1999) and Amendments (Second National Education Act B.E. 2545) (Office of the National Education Commission, 2002) emphasize the student-centered learning processes where learners are regarded as being the most important. Thus, the teaching and learning process shall aim at enabling learners to develop themselves at their own pace and to develop their full potential. Educational institutions and agencies shall provide training in thinking process, management, how to face various situations and application of knowledge for obviating and solving problems. The ultimate goal of education aims at developing Thai citizen to cope with the economic, social and political growth of the countries in the ASEAN region.
Even though the Ministry of Education has emphasized the student-centered teaching and learning process in Thailand since 1999, in many classrooms this process still focuses on teacher-centered learning and teaching students to acquire good scores in school exams and, ultimately, the Ordinary National Education Test (ONET). In science learning, many students focus their learning on memorization of contents rather than practicing an ability to critically think, logically analyze and systematically solve real problems. Also, there are a few connections between students’ learning scientific knowledge and its application in their daily lives. This situation is harmful for the growth of Thailand because these youths will grow to become the quality Thai citizens in the near future (Office of the Education Council, 2011).
The new science curriculum emphasized science teaching and learning based on scientific inquiry that emphasizes learners construct knowledge themselves through scientific inquiry process. One important process of scientific inquiry is scientific argumentation (Berland & Reiser, 2009). There is a relationship between the scientific argumentation skill and scientific understanding. In the science classroom, learners must utilize their scientific knowledge and cognitive processes to generate scientific argumentation and participate in social process to communicate their arguments and exchange and defend them with their classmates. Thus, promoting scientific argumentation through scientific inquiry classrooms is important in helping learners reach learning objectives in science (Sampson, Grooms, & Walker, 2009).
The current science education movement needs students to attain good argumentative skills because there are various social-related scientific issues and conflicts which are being argued about. This means that students are expected to be able to consider reliable evidence before forming an opinion or making a decision. In addition, students should be able to communicate their arguments with their peers who may agree or disagree with them. In the argumentative process, students express their efforots, seeking for reliable evidence to confirm and convince opposing students to agree with them (Toulmin, 2003).
The Science-Technology-Society (STS) is one constructivist teaching approach that can help students develop their ability to make arguments and defend their arguments by raising appropriate reliable data sources. The degree of reliability of a data source can improve the effectiveness of decision-making process. The skills to search for reliable data and create relevant arguments would enable students to comfortably participate in social discussion and allow them accept and display their social responsibility (Driver, Newton, & Osborne, 2000). When students learn how to create scientific arguments and develop the rationale for such arguments, they will be able to integrate their scientific understanding with the real problem. In argumentation, students must be able to develop a sensible reason to support their argument until reaching quality argumentation that greatly helps them solve issues or conflicts (Lin & Mintzes, 2010).
From the literature review, there was two gaps in the literature of scientific argumentation, especially in the educational context of Thailand. First, there is no study on the current situation of students’ scientific argumentation in grade 10 science classrooms in Thailand. From this, the literature suggests that the STS teaching approach has its potential to help students develop their scientific argumentation. Thus, the second gap is there is no study related to the utilization of the STS approach in enhancing grade 10 students’ scientific argumentation. These are two big gaps in the literature about STS approach and scientific argumentation that this study will to contribute to.

Research Questions
Therefore, the research questions of this study are:

What is the current situation of students’ scientific argumentation in grade 10 science classrooms?
What are desirable characteristics of the STS learning unit in the Work and Energy topic for enhancing grade 10 students’ scientific argumentation?
What is the impact of the STS learning unit on Work and Energy on enhancement of grade 10 students’ scientific argumentation?

Research Objectives
The objectives of this study are

to explore the current situation of scientific argumentation-related interactions in grade 10 science classrooms; and
to study the impacts of developed STS learning unit on work and energy on grade 10 students’ scientific argumentation.