Slides of Keynote address given by Professor Jonathan Osborne at the EARLI conference, Aachen, August 12-16

1. Argumentation, Interaction
and Learning: Lessons from
Science Education
Jonathan Osborne
Graduate School of Education
Graduate School of Education
Stanford University

2. Unequivocal
Unquestioned
Uncontested
Final Form Science

3. 1. The Sun moves
2. If you jumped up you would not land in the same
spot
3. If the Earth was spinning at that rate, the speed at
the equator is over a 1000 mph and you should be
flung off
Arguments against a Spinning Earth?

7. “There is an anaesthetic of familiarity, a sedative of
ordinariness which dulls the senses and hides the
wonder of existence”.

9. Cognitive History of Science
Alistair Crombie
“History of Vision and Argument”

10. The Aether
Rejection of Continental Drift

12. The Cultural Achievement of Science (Crazy
Ideas)
● Day and Night are caused by a Spinning Earth
● The Continents have moved
● We have evolved from other animals
● The Earth is 5 billion years old
● Diseases are caused by tiny living organisms
● We live at the bottom of a sea of air
● You look like your parents because every cell carries a
chemically coded message of how to reproduce yourself

13. The Role of Argument in Science

14. Interactive
Constructive
Active
Passive

15. Osborne, J. (2010).
Arguing to Learn in
Science: The Role of
Collaborative, Critical
Discourse.
Science, 328, 463-466.

17. Breath Rate v Pulse Rate
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
60 70 80 90 100 110 120
BreathsPerMinute
Pulse Beats Per Minute

18. Best Summary?
(a) One pupil had the most breaths and she also had
the highest pulse rate.
(b) All the people with a high breath rate had a high
pulse rate.
(c) The higher your breathing rate, the greater the
pulse rate.
(d) On the whole, those people with a higher breath
rate had a higher pulse rate.

21. Argumentation for Learning
(i) Inhibitors and Enablers of Argumentation
(ii) Dialogue Characteristics
(iii) Learning outcomes

23. 23
Should we reintroduce Wolves in California?
Strongly
Agree
Strongly
Disagree

24. Lectures v Active Learning
Freeman S, et al. (2014) Active learning increases student performance in science,
engineering, and mathematics. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 111:8410–8415.

25. Stephen Norris
To ask of other human beings that they accept and memorize
what the science teacher says, without any concern for the
meaning and justification of what is said, is to treat those
human beings with disrespect and is to show insufficient care
for their welfare. It treats them with a disrespect, because
students exist on a moral par with their teachers, and therefore
have a right to expect from their teachers reasons for what the
teachers wish them to believe. It shows insufficient care for
the welfare of students, because possessing beliefs that one is
unable to justify is poor currency when one needs beliefs that
can reliably guide action.
Norris, S. P. (1997). "Intellectual Independence for Nonscientists and Other
Content-Transcendent Goals of Science Education." Science Education
81(2): 239-258.

26. 0%
15%
30%
45%
60%
4-5th Grade
8th Grade
9th Grade
% of Time Allocated to Discursive Practices by 3 ‘Exemplary Teachers’

28. 0
5
10
15
20
25
0
0.75
1.5
2.25
3
3.75
1904-1921 1924-1931 1932-1948 1948-1963 1964-1971 1974-1978 1978-1991 1991-2000
NumberofProblem-SolvingStrategies
LevelofConceptualAbstraction
Year
Number of Problem Solving Strategies
Level of Conceptual Abstraction

30. Performance Expectations
Analyze and interpret data on the properties
of substances before and after the
substances interact to determine if a
chemical reaction has occurred

32. Research Questions
1. Identify some of the pedagogical strategies necessary
to promote ‘‘argument’’ skills in young people in
science lessons.
2. Trial the pedagogical strategies and determine the
extent to which their implementation enhances
teachers’ pedagogic practice with ‘‘argument.’’
3. Determine the extent to which lessons that follow
these pedagogical strategies lead to enhanced quality
in students’ arguments.

33. 0
5
10
15
20
25
30
1 2 3 4 5
No of Arguments at Each Level
Pre
Post

35. How do we know?
 Plants get most of their matter from photosynthesis?
 Day and Night are caused by a spinning Earth?
 Matter is conserved in a chemical reaction?
 We live at the bottom of a sea of air?

38. Discourse Practices
Teacher Practices Student Practices
Ask Explain/Claim
Press Co-Construct
Link Critique

39. PRACTISE Project

40. Scientific Practices
1. Ask Questions & Define Problems
2. Develop and Use Models
3. Plan and Carry out Investigations
4. Analyze and Interpret Data
5. Use Mathematical and Computational Thinking
6. Construct Explanations & Design Solutions
7. Engage in Argument from Evidence
8. Obtain, Evaluate and Communicate Information

41. Computerized Assessment

42. Computerized Assessment

44. In Conclusion
“I am sorry that I have had to leave so many problems
unsolved. I always have to make this apology, but
education really is rather puzzling and I cannot help it. “
Russell, B. (1918). The Philosophy of Logical Atomism: Lecture 5,
“General Propositions and Existence”. The Monist, 29, 190-206.

45. THANKYOU
osbornej@stanford.edu