Learning to Argue: Using Argument-based Learning (AbL) and Illegal-mining Issues to Promote the Argumentation Skills of University Students Muhammad Haris Effendi-Hasibuan, Abu Bakar
Universitas Jambi
Abstract
Argumentation skills are crucial for students to understand science concepts including chemistry. This study had used issues about gold illegal-mining which is evented in Jambi province to promote the argumentation skills of the Indonesian university chemistry students. Three learning strategies that included Argument-based Learning (AbL), Jigsaw and Predict-Observe-Explain (POE) had been utilized and their effect on the students^ argumentation skills had been investigated. Factors that made the differences amongst those strategies had also been identified. Data were collected using open-ended tests and fieldnotes. Quantitative and qualitative methods were employed to analyze the data. The results showed that AbL was the most effective learning strategy amongst the three strategies in enabling the students to produce good quality arguments. The results of Tukey-test confirmed that AbL was significantly different [p-value<.05] from the other strategies in promoting such skills. Fieldnotes data showed that varied opportunities the students had to debate their answers was the factor that caused the differences amongst the strategies. This finding suggests that using a learning strategy that encourages students to conduct debates is highly recommended to promote students^ skills in scientific argumentation.
