Concept of Evidence and the Quality of Evidence-Based Reasoning in Elementary Students

Publication Date

4-1-2021

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Topoi

Volume

40

Issue

2

DOI

10.1007/s11245-019-09685-y

First Page

359

Last Page

372

Abstract

The present study has two goals: to explore elementary students’ understanding of evidence and the ways they deploy it to construct arguments, and to examine whether eliciting their concept of evidence during argumentation improves students’ evidence-based reasoning. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with 4th and 6th graders (N = 66) in a public school in Mexico. We found significant differences between groups regarding the concept of evidence, with better performance in the older group. A positive correlation between the concept of evidence and the quality of evidence-based reasoning was found. Also, three performance profiles were observed after eliciting the concept of evidence when grade was excluded as a factor. Results suggest that the concept of evidence plays an essential role in developing argumentative competence in pre-adolescence.

Funding Number

2018_RTI2018-097289-B-I00

Funding Sponsor

Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología

Keywords

Argumentation quality, Concept of evidence, Elementary school, Evidence generation, Evidence quality, Evidence-based reasoning

Department

Teacher Education

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