Teacher’s Toolkit: Promoting and supporting scientific argumentation in the classroom—The evaluate-alternatives instructional model

by: Victor Sampson and Jonathon Grooms

This article describes an instructional model that science teachers can use to promote and support student engagement in scientific argumentation. This model is called the evaluate-alternatives instructional model and it is grounded in current research on argumentation in science education (e.g., Berland and Reiser 2009; McNeill and Krajcik 2006; Osborne, Erduran, and Simon 2004; Sampson and Clark 2009; Sandoval and Reiser 2004). To illustrate how this model works inside the classroom, a lesson that was developed for an eighth-grade integrated science course is described. This lesson was designed to help students understand the transfer of energy and develop the abilities to do scientific inquiry.

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Type Journal ArticlePub Date 9/1/2009Stock # ss09_033_01_66Volume 033Issue 01

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Kimberly Armstrong (Chicago, IL)
Kimberly Armstrong (Chicago, IL)

Scientific Argumentation

I, too, picked this journal article for my collection because it provided me with a viable instructional model to use within the classroom to ensure student engagement in scientific argument... See More

Tina Harris (Fairmount, IN)
Tina Harris (Fairmount, IN)

Good way to start introducing class discourse

The article provides a method for students to critique evidence (a discrepant event is used to generate this) and a variety of "theories" to determine the truth of each and to guide students... See More

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