Students' Informal Reasoning, Evaluations, and Plausibility Perceptions About Climate Change

• In Event: 56.082 - Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: 56.082-1 - Motivation, Learning, and Instruction in STEM

Abstract

Scientists engage in a wide variety of practices, such as generating ideas, coordinating theories with evidence, and critically evaluating arguments. Current science education reform efforts call for students to be critically evaluative of alternative explanations in a way that reflects scientific practice. The purpose of the present study was to examine students’ depth of evaluation while engaging in an instructional activity around the topic of climate change. We analyzed students’ Depth of Critical Evaluation (DCE) to identity and track changes in students’ scientific thinking. Our findings suggest that participation in the MEL diagram activity instantiates scientific modes of thinking.

Authors

• Mariel Rebecca Halpern

• Doug Lombardi, University of Maryland - College Park

• Janelle M. Bailey, Temple University