Investigaciones basadas en la argumentación en el laboratorio de Química General para profesores en formación

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of argument-based general chemistry laboratory investigations on both understanding of chemistry concepts and a summary writing activity of pre-service science teachers. Argument-based general chemistry laboratory investigations were developed for five topics using the Science Writing Heuristic (SWH) approach. Twenty-three students in the treatment group were engaged in five argument-based general chemistry laboratory investigations over a semester. All the activities for the sixteen students in the control group were traditional general chemistry laboratory experiments. Data analyses indicated that there were significant differences between the treatment and the control groups in understanding of chemistry concepts and scores on the summary writing activity. The treatment group gained significantly higher scores in ‘argumentation’, ‘understanding of science concepts’, and ‘rhetoric structure’ components in the summary writing activity. An implication of this study is for pre-service science educators to continue to implement argumentation-based general chemistry laboratory investigations to help pre-service science teachers develop understanding of science concepts and summary writing.