The influence of prior knowledge and collaborative online learning environment on students’ argumentation in descriptive and theoretical scientific concept

Abstract

The present study investigated the influence of two factors, namely, argumentation approach and students’ prior knowledge on the learning of scientific concept and argumentation in descriptive and theoretical scientific concept-based topics. Four 7th grade science classes totalling 138 students participated and were assigned to four groups according to first, the degree of their prior scientific knowledge (low or high), and second, their argumentation approach (monological or collaborative). Results indicated that collaborative learning has a significant influence on students’ online argumentation in both descriptive and theoretical topics. Students tend to co-construct arguments through critical dialogue interactions in theoretical topics. However, few critical arguments were generated for the descriptive topics. The influence of students’ prior knowledge is related to their argumentation environment. In the context of descriptive topics, prior knowledge significantly influences students’ monological argumentation. In the context of theoretical topics, prior knowledge significantly influences students’ collaborative argumentation. Although students’ prior scientific knowledge is important in the production of quality arguments, we found that students with low prior knowledge can still perform as well as students with high prior knowledge in argumentation through peers’ dialogue interactions in theoretical topics.

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