EFFECTIVENESS OF CLAIM, EVIDENCE AND REASONING AS AN INNOVATION TO DEVELOP STUDENTS’ SCIENTIFIC ARGUMENTATIVE WRITING SKILLS

Abstract

This study focused on inquiry necessities on the students’ use of argument, particularly in writing, that is, to communicate their knowledge and scientific findings and develop an understanding of scientific practice/s. The purpose of this action research is to evaluate the effectiveness of Claim, Evidence and Reasoning as an innovation to develop students’ argumentative writing skills in the senior high school classrooms. The CER Framework, while extensive and complex, shows promise building both argumentative writing skills and science content knowledge of the learners. The results of this study demonstrated that modified iterations of this model should include data sets that are personally meaningful to students, writing tasks scaffolded to areas of students’ need, attitude and comfort, and clear communication of feedback, from both peers and teacher - focused on all three areas of scientific arguments: claim, evidence, and reasoning. Information gained from this study will benefit science educators by yielding information about how scientific argumentative writing can be most effectively implemented in the science classroom to yield the maximum benefit for literacy in the science curriculum.