Victor Sampson

University of Texas at Austin | UT · Department of Curriculum and Instruction

We examine how a unique professional learning experience for teachers, which consists of an opportunity to (a) co-design a new instructional model intended to give students opportunities to participate in scientific argumentation, (b) develop instructional materials based on the new model, and then (c) use the materials inside their classrooms, is...

Calls for engineering integration in pre-collegiate science courses are being made across the globe. The success of such efforts depends heavily on science teachers changing their instructional practices to include engineering. We conjecture when a science teacher chooses to make instructional change, including a change to integrate engineering pra...

The Framework for K-12 Science Education details new goals to guide improvement of US science education. Among the new goals, the inclusion of engineering core ideas and practices stand out. We report a case study of four 8th-grade science teachers who chose to integrate engineering core ideas and practices into their science classes by teaching fo...

The Next Generation Science Standards support understanding of the nature of science as it is practiced and experienced in the real world through interconnected concepts to be imbedded within scientific practices and crosscutting concepts. This study explored how fourth and fifth grade elementary students’ views of nature of science change when the...

In response to a lack of high-quality instructional materials encompassing three-dimensional instruction, STEM integration, and issues of access and inclusion, we developed an instructional framework—Argument-Driven Engineering (ADE)—and associated STEM design challenges (SDCs) based on this framework. ADE was developed as a way to support science...

Bilingual English Language Learner (ELL) students need more opportunities to learn how to read, write, and discuss science as they learn to use the core ideas, crosscutting concepts, and practices of science to develop explanations for natural phenomena or to solve problems. This chapter describes how teachers can use the Argument Driven Inquiry (A...

Science teachers have recently been challenged to add engineering design into their classrooms to comply with the addition of engineering practices in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Taking advantage of this opportunity to promote engineering, an initial prototype of an instructional framework has been designed and revised called Argu...

Scientific argumentation, as conceptualized in the literature, emphasizes the importance of students' social and epistemic interactions for the purposes of developing and critiquing knowledge. Students, therefore, must understand the scientific criteria for evaluating the quality of argumentative structures and interactions. Yet, a question remains...

The National Science Foundation (NSF) in the United States funds Research Experiences for Teachers (RETs) for K-12 science teachers. The RET program seeks to provide science teachers with research experiences so they can provide enhanced science or engineering inquiry experiences for their students. One form of RET that focuses on science pedagogy...

National efforts have described the need for students to develop scientific proficiency and have identified informal learning environments, interactive technologies, and an understanding of inquiry as ways to support this development. The Habitat Tracker project was developed in response to this need by developing a digitally-supported, inquiry-ori...

This study examines what students enrolled in the honors and general sections of a high school biology course offered at the same school learn when they have an opportunity to participate in a broad or narrow range of science practices during their laboratory experiences. The results of our analysis suggest that the students enrolled in the general...

This paper presents findings from a qualitative analysis of electronic journal entries created by elementary school students during field trips to a nature center. The field trips were part of the Habitat Tracker project (http://tracker.cci.fsu.edu/) designed to help elementary students learn about scientific practices. The Habitat Tracker team dev...

This study examines the extent to which the type of instruction used during a general chemistry laboratory course affects students’ ability to use core ideas to engage in science practices. We use Ford’s (2008) description of the nature of scientific practices to categorize what student do in the laboratory as either empirical or representational....

Observing the work of science teachers is different. Although general indicators such as a focus on relevant and appropriate topics, student engagement, frequent checks for understanding are important for any context, they’re insufficient for identifying good science instruction. Science teachers need to use science-specific instructional practices...

Scientific argumentation is an essential activity for the development and refinement of scientific knowledge. Additionally, fostering argumentation related to scientific concepts can help students engage in a variety of essential scientific practices and enhance their science content knowledge. With the increasing prevalence and emphasis on argumen...

This quasi-experimental study uses a pre-/post-intervention approach to investigate the quality of undergraduate students’ arguments in the context of socioscientific issues (SSI) based on experiencing a semester of traditional ‘cookbook' instruction (N = 79) or a semester of argument-based instruction (N = 73) in the context of an undergraduate sc...

This quasi-experimental study uses a pre-/post-intervention approach to investigate the quality of undergraduate students' arguments in the context of socioscientific issues (SSI) based on experiencing a semester of traditional 'cookbook' instruction (N ¼ 79) or a semester of argument-based instruction (N ¼ 73) in the context of an undergraduate sc...

Understanding the connections between scientific inquiry and digital literacy in informal learning environments is essential to furthering students' critical thinking and technology skills. The Habitat Tracker project combines a standards-based curriculum focused on the nature of science with an integrated system of online and mobile computing tech...

This paper presents preliminary evidence supporting the use of peer review in undergraduate science as a means to improve student writing and to alleviate barriers, such as lost class time, by incorporation of the peer-review process into the laboratory component of the course. The study was conducted in a single section of an undergraduate general...

Mobile learning has been recommended for motivating students on field trips; nevertheless, owing to the complexity and the richness of the learning resources from both the real-world and the digital-world environments, information overload remains one of the major concerns. Most mobile learning designs provide feedback only for multiple choice item...

This study examined how students’ science-specific argumentative writing skills and understanding of core ideas changed over the course of a school year as they participated in a series of science laboratories designed using the Argument-Driven Inquiry (ADI) instructional model. The ADI model is a student-centered and writing-intensive approach to...

This study examines whether students enrolled in a general chemistry I laboratory course developed the ability to participate in scientific argumentation over the course of a semester. The laboratory activities that the students participated in during the course were designed using the Argument-Driven Inquiry (ADI) an instructional model. This mode...

This article describes the development and the initial validation of an instrument that can be used to assess teachers' beliefs about science teaching and learning. The instrument, which is called the Beliefs About Reformed Science Teaching and Learning (BARSTL) questionnaire, draws on the current national science education reform efforts in order...

Current research indicates that student engagement in scientific argumentation can foster a better understanding of the concepts and the processes of science. Yet opportunities for students to participate in authentic argumentation inside the science classroom are rare. There also is little known about science teachers' understandings of argumentat...

Puzzling Through Gravity Much of the excitement of scientific discovery seems to get lost when science is taught as facts by lectures. Granger et al. (p. 105 ) present a large study of outcomes comparing inquiry-based teaching with more traditional teaching methods. Over 2000 students were involved, in 125 classrooms of 4th- and 5th-graders. The cl...

This chapter describes the development and initial validation of a new instrument that researchers can use to assess how students participate in scientific argumentation. This instrument, which is called the Assessment of Scientific Argumentation in the Classroom (ASAC) Observation Protocol, includes 19 items that target the conceptual or cognitive...

Technology Enhanced Learning in Science Center (TELS) received funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation to investigate approaches for improving learning and instruction in science classes for students in grades 6–12 with a focus on the role that information technology can play. The knowledge integration framework informs the design of TELS...

This exploratory study examined how undergraduate students’ ability to write in science changed over time as they completed a series of laboratory activities designed using a new instructional model called argument-driven inquiry. The study was conducted in a single section of an undergraduate general chemistry lab course offered at a large two-yea...

This poster presents preliminary results from an ongoing research project designed to help elementary school students learn about scientific inquiry. Florida State University, in partnership with the Tallahassee Museum (a wildlife center in Tallahassee, FL), has developed a digital journaling system that uses online and mobile technologies to help...

This poster presents preliminary results from the second year of a three-year project designed to help elementary students learn about scientific inquiry and become active participants in their own science education. Florida State University has developed a set of technologies (an iPad application and website) integrated with a standards-based natu...

The national science standards call for increased focus on scientific argumentation in the classroom, and researchers have developed sophisticated online science learning environments to promote and support student engagement in scientific argumentation. Assessing the quality of scientific dialogic argumentation­ in these environments, however, has...

This article presents a new instructional model called Argument-Driven Inquiry (ADI) that can be used in undergraduate college chemistry laboratory courses. ADI is designed to provide students with an opportunity to develop their own method to generate data, to carry out investigations, use data to answer research questions, write, and be more refl...

Educators are increasingly being called upon to provide evidence of student learning. Traditional assessments are not always the best venue for demonstrating conceptual understanding, particularly in science. This paper presents details on the design, use, and scoring of a performance-based assessment for measuring student understanding of limiting...

Evagorou: In this chapter, Shirley and Ruth raise several interesting issues related to (socio-scientific issues) SSI, argumentation, and decision-making. A major question in this study was the quality of students’ arguments, and if there is a link between the nature of the evidence (e.g., scientific, environmental, financial) and the quality of th...

This exploratory study examines how a series of laboratory activities designed using a new instructional model, called Argument-Driven Inquiry (ADI), influences the ways students participate in scientific argumentation and the quality of the scientific arguments they craft as part of this process. The two outcomes of interest were assessed with a p...

This qualitative study examines the interactions between individuals, ideas, and materials as two high and two low performing groups of students engaged in a process of collaborative scientific argumentation. To engage students in collaborative scientific argumentation the students were randomly assigned to small groups of three students each. Each...

We describe two instructional techniques that science teachers can use to promote and support scientific argumentation inside the classroom. These techniques are designed to give students an opportunity to establish or validate a claim on the basis of reasons or to propose, support, evaluate, and refine a claim as part of a group. The description o...

In this quantitative study, we compare the efficacy of Level 2, guided inquiry–based instruction to more traditional, verification laboratory instruction in supporting student performance on a standardized measure of knowledge of content, procedure, and nature of science. Our sample included 1,700 students placed in the classrooms of 12 middle scho...

A workshop held at the National Academies in the United States in 2007 highlighted five broad categories of skills that appear valuable across a range of jobs for people working in modern global economies. Engaging students in scientific argumentation can support the development of these 21st century skills. Unfortunately, opportunities are rare in...

This study examines three questions about the impact of collaboration during scientific argumentation. First, do groups craft better arguments than individuals? Second, to what degree do individuals adopt and internalize the arguments crafted by their group? Third, do individuals who work in groups learn more from their experiences than individuals...

Theoretical and empirical research on argument and argumentation in science education has intensified over the last two decades. The term “argument” in this review refers to the artifacts that a student or a group of students create when asked to articulate and justify claims or explanations whereas the term “argumentation” refers to the process of...

The national science standards, along with prominent researchers, call for increased focus on scientific argumentation in the classroom. Over the past decade, researchers have developed sophisticated online science learning environments to support these opportunities for scientific argumentation. Assessing the quality of dialogic argumentation, how...

Most middle school science teachers are familiar with the idea of reading and writing across the curriculum. We, as science teachers, understand that our students need time, practice, and lots of encouragement in order to learn how to read and write well. What we also need to remember, however, is that learning how to read and write in science is a...

Over the last decade, researchers have developed sophisticated online learning environments to support students engaging in dialogic argumentation. This review examines five categories of analytic frameworks for measuring participant interactions within these environments focusing on (1) formal argumentation structure, (2) conceptual quality, (3) n...

Research shows that scientific knowledge develops through a process of decision‐making as well as discovery, and that argumentation is a genre of discourse crucial to the practice of science. Students should therefore be supported in understanding the scientific practices of dialectical and rhetorical argumentation as part of learning about scienti...

CSCL includes a wide range of scenarios that integrate individual and collaborative learning. Scripts have repeatedly proven useful for guiding learners to engage in specific roles and activities in CSCL environments. The effective mechanisms of scripts in stimulating cognitive and collaborative processes, however, are not yet well understood. More...

This study tests three critical assumptions that stem from efforts to use collaboration as a way to foster more productive argumentation in science classrooms: (a) groups will out perform individuals, (b) individuals will adopt and internalize group outcomes, and (c) individuals who work in groups will learn more from their experiences than individ...

Over the last decade, researchers have developed sophisticated online learning environments to promote argumentative discourse between students. This symposium examines some of the diverse ways researchers have attempted to examine how students engage in argumentation and to assess the effectiveness of CSCL environments in fostering productive argu...

Theoretical and empirical research on argumentation in science education has intensified over the last two decades. This article reviews and synthesizes analytical methods used to assess and characterize the nature of rhetorical arguments generated by students as part of this research. This synthesis of the current state of argumentation analysis i...

Knowing how to argue is a prerequisite to participation in scientific discourse. In argumentative knowledge construction, learners collaboratively construct and engage in arguments with the goal of learning to argue within a domain. Students have difficulties, however, constructing and evaluating arguments. Computer-supported collaborative learning...

Several researchers have shown that student participation in discourse paralleling that of scientific communities is critical to successful science education. This study focuses on supporting scientific argumentation in the classroom through a personally-seeded online discussion system. Students use an online interface to build principles to descri...

Background/Context Scientific proficiency, as described by (Duschl, Schweingruber, & Shouse, 2007), encompasses a variety of knowledge and skills required by an individual to be able to function effectively in an increasingly complex, information-driven society. The framework of scientific proficiency positions science as "both a body of knowledge...

A workshop held at the National Academies in the United States in 2007 highlighted five broad categories of skills that appear valuable across a range of jobs for people working in modern global economies. Engaging students in scientific argumentation can support the development of these 21st century skills. Unfortunately, opportunities are rare in...