Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Articulation of Conceptual Knowledge and Argumentation Practices by High School Students in Evolution Problems

  • Published:
Science & Education Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The oral arguments of 12th grade students while solving tasks related to evolution are examined. Two groups (N = 45), taught by the same teacher, were studied during a complete teaching sequence. The paper focuses on data from the last sessions, devoted to solving problems in small groups, problems related to different dimensions of the evolutionary model. Data include video recordings, the students’ written productions and the researcher (first author) field notes. The objective is to examine the process of articulation of students’ argumentation practices with their use of evolutionary models. The results show that participants were able to apply notions such as common ancestors, radiation, or gradualism to different contexts. The arguments required the articulation of evolution notions with argumentative practices as coordinating evidence with claims at different epistemic levels. The influence of the teacher’s strategies in the students’ role is discussed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Anderson, R. D. (2007). Teaching the theory of evolution in social, intellectual and pedagogical context. Science Education, 91, 664–677.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crawford, T. (2005). What counts as knowing: Constructing a communicative repertoire for student demonstration of knowledge in science. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 42(2), 139–165.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Demastes, S. S., Good, R. G., & Peebles, P. (1996). Patterns of conceptual change in evolution. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 33(4), 407–431.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Driver, R., Newton, P., & Osborne, J. (2000). Establishing the norms of scientific argumentation in classrooms. Science Education, 84(3), 287–312.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gould, S. J. (1997). The exaptive excellence of spandrels as a term and prototype. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 94, 10750–10755.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gould, S. J., & Lewontin, R. C. (1979). The spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian paradigm: A critique of the adaptationist programme. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B, 205, 581–598.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gould, S. J., & Vrba, E. S. (1982). Exaptation; a missing term in the science of form. Paleobiology, 8, 4–15.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jensen, M. S., & Finley, F. N. (1996). Changes in students’ understanding of evolution resulting from different curricular and instructional strategies. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 33(8), 879–900.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jiménez-Aleixandre, M. P. (1992). Thinking about theories or thinking with theories: A classroom study with natural selection. International Journal of Science Education, 14(1), 51–61.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jiménez-Aleixandre, M. P. (1994). Teaching evolution and natural selection: A look at textbooks and teachers. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 31(5), 519–535.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jiménez-Aleixandre, M. P. (1996). Darwinian and Lamarckian models used by students and its representation. In K. Fisher & M. Kibby (Eds.), Knowledge acquisition organization and use in biology (pp. 65–77). Dordrecht: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jiménez-Aleixandre, M. P. (2008). Designing argumentation learning environments. In S. Erduran & M. P. Jiménez-Aleixandre (Eds.), Argumentation in science education: Perspectives from classroom-based research (pp. 91–115). Dordrecht: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jiménez-Aleixandre, M. P., Bugallo Rodríguez, A., & Duschl, R. A. (2000). “Doing the lesson” or “doing science”: Argument in high school genetics’. Science Education, 84(6), 757–792.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jiménez-Aleixandre, M. P., Eirexas, F., & Agraso, M. F. (2006). Use of evidence in arguments about a socio-scientific issue by 12th grade students: Choices about heating systems and energy sources. Paper presented at the NARST meeting, San Francisco, CA.

  • Jiménez-Aleixandre, M. P., & Erduran, S. (2008). Argumentation in science education: An overview. In S. Erduran & M. P. Jiménez-Aleixandre (Eds.), Argumentation in science education: Perspectives from classroom-based research (pp. 3–27). Dordrecht: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jiménez-Aleixandre, M. P., & Reigosa, C. (2006). Contextualizing practices across epistemic levels in the chemistry laboratory. Science Education, 90, 707–733.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kampourakis, K., & Zogza, V. (2007). Students’ preconceptions about evolution: How accurate is the characterization as “Lamarckian” when considering the history of evolutionary thought? Science & Education, 16, 393–422.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kampourakis, K., & Zogza, V. (2008). Students’ intuitive explanations of the causes of homologies and adaptations. Science & Education, 17(1), 27–47.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kampourakis, K., & Zogza, V. (2009). Preliminary evolutionary explanations: A basic framework for conceptual change and explanatory coherence in evolution. Science & Education (online first article).

  • Kelly, G. J., & Chen, C. (1999). The sound of music: Constructing science as sociocultural practices through oral and written discourse. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 36, 883–915.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kelly, G. J., & Takao, A. (2002). Epistemic levels in argument: An analysis of university oceanography students’ use of evidence in writing. Science Education, 86, 314–342.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kuhn, D. (1991). The skills of argument. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Otero, J. (2002). Noticing and fixing difficulties while understanding science texts. In J. Otero, J. A. León, & A. Graesser (Eds.), The psychology of science text comprehension. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Passmore, C., & Stewart, J. (2002). A modelling approach to teaching evolutionary biology in high schools. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 39(3), 185–204.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sadler, T. D., & Donnelly, L. A. (2006). Socioscientific argumentation: The effects of content-knowledge and morality. International Journal of Science Education, 28(12), 1463–1488.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sadler, T. D., & Zeidler, D. L. (2005). The significance of content knowledge for informal reasoning regarding socioscientific issues: Applying genetics knowledge to genetics engineering issues. Science Education, 89, 71–93.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sandoval, W. A., & Reiser, B. J. (2004). Explanation-driven inquiry: Integrating conceptual and epistemic scaffolds for scientific inquiry. Science Education, 88, 345–372.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sinatra, G. M., Southerland, S. A., McConaughy, F., & Demastes, J. W. (2003). Intentions and beliefs in students’ understanding and acceptance of biological evolution. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 40(5), 510–528.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, M. U., & Siegel, H. (2004). Knowing, believing and understanding: What goals for science education? Science & Education, 13, 553–582.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Southerland, S. A., Abrams, E., Cummins, C. L., & Anzelmo, J. (2001). Understanding students’ explanations of biological phenomena: Conceptual frameworks or p-prims? Science Education, 85, 328–348.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Toulmin, S. (1958). The use of argument. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • von Aufschnaiter, C., Erduran, S., Osborne, J., & Simon, S. (2008). Arguing to learn and learning to argue: Case studies of how students’ argumentation relates to their scientific knowledge. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 45(1), 101–131.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zohar, A. & Nemet, F. (2002). Fostering students’ knowledge and argumentation skills through dilemmas in human genetics. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 39, 35–62.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

M. P. Jiménez-Aleixandre’s work makes part of a project supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (MEC), partly funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Grant code SEJ2006-15589-C02-01/EDUC. Mortimer’s and Lima-Tavares’s work is part of two projects supported by CNPq, the agency of the Brazilian Ministry for Science and Technology.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculdade de Educação, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Av. Antônio Carlos, 6627, Belo Horizonte, MG, 31270-901, Brazil

    Marina de Lima Tavares & Eduardo F. Mortimer

  2. Departamento de Didáctica das Ciencias Experimentais, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Av. Xoan XXIII s.n., 15782, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

    María-Pilar Jiménez-Aleixandre

Authors
  1. Marina de Lima Tavares
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. María-Pilar Jiménez-Aleixandre
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Eduardo F. Mortimer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to María-Pilar Jiménez-Aleixandre.

Appendix 1

Appendix 1

1.1 Task 1, Class P: Feathered Dinosaurs

There are evidences showing that birds and dinosaurs are closely related. This notion is based on the study of birds and dinosaurs morphology, revealing that these animals share a number of structures. Since the late 1990 s animal fossils were found, which have dinosaurs’ morphological traits but are covered by feathers: the feathered dinosaurs. This constitutes an evidence of the existence of feathers since the dinosaurs’ time, before birds appear. Because the earlier feathered dinosaurs do not have morphological traits indicating the ability to fly, it is believed that the feathers had another function in feathered dinosaurs: thermic insulation related to the temperature regulation of these animals. Some authors think that it is possible for structures to have more than one function during the evolutionary process. Feathers, for instance, would have an initial function as insulators and only later would shift to function to assist flight. Thinking in evolution terms: How do we view this possibility?

  1. (a)

    The notion that structures like feathers may serve to more than one function along the evolution process is acceptable and the example quoted above constitutes an evidence of this shifting of functions.

  2. (b)

    The notion that structures like feathers may serve to more than one function along the evolution process is not adequate. Feathers, as we know them today, are structures selected and adapted for birds’ flight.

1.2 Task 2, Class P: Gaps in the Fossil Records

The Earth is 4.6 billion year-old, but life originated about 3.5 billion years ago. The first life records belong to prokaryotes, that is unicellular organisms that dominate the fossil record for more than 2 billion years. Paleontological data reveal that the first fossils of the majority of invertebrata appear for the first time about 570 million years ago. In this Cambrian period we find a diversity of multicellular organisms, annelids, arthropods, echinoderms, molluscs or sponges, and even chordata. It has to be noted that between this fossil records of multicellular organisms and the earlier records of living organisms, no fossils of intermediate forms are found. It is as if these multicellular organisms appeared in an advanced stage of evolution. Thinking in evolution terms, and considering that the fossil records may reflect the diversification of living beings in nature: How can we interpret these data?

  1. (a)

    The lack of intermediate fossils is due to the fact that very few fossils from periods prior to 570 million years were formed or preserved. The evolution of multicellular organisms was a slow process proceeding by little steps.

  2. (b)

    The lack of intermediate fossils is due to the fact that these forms never existed. Multicellular organisms appeared as a consequence of abrupt changes.

1.3 Task 3, Class M: Lake Nabugabo

Lake Nabugabo is a small fresh water lake in Uganda, close to Lake Victoria. Geological evidences indicate that Lake Nabugabo was part of Lake Victoria in previous times and was later separated from the main lake by a sandbar. Radio carbon dating shows that the separation happened 4,000 years ago or even earlier. Something special happens in Lake Nabugabo: there are five fish species from the cichlids family that are not found in any other place, even in Lake Victoria. However, each one of these five species is similar to one species in Lake Victoria, being the main differences the male color patterns. Thinking in evolution terms we can conclude that:

  1. (a)

    The species found in Lake Nabugabo must have developed from ancestral populations found in Lake Victoria. It is an instance of population’s isolation that started a fast species formation at evolutionary scale.

  2. (b)

    The species found in Lake Nabugabo had always been different from these found in Lake Victoria. Lake Nabugabo species are not found today in Lake Victoria because they were not adapted to that environment.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

de Lima Tavares, M., Jiménez-Aleixandre, MP. & Mortimer, E.F. Articulation of Conceptual Knowledge and Argumentation Practices by High School Students in Evolution Problems. Sci & Educ 19, 573–598 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-009-9206-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-009-9206-6

Keywords

Search

Navigation