The use of Stephen Toulmin's standard model of argumentation in science teaching within the Physics discipline: Some research results and reflections from classroom debates

Abstract

The main objective of this article is to present analysis results about a teaching module carried out in a class of the first year of high school in a public school in RS, within the scope of a more comprehensive research of postdoctoral studies by the first author. The research investigates the pertinence of dealing with varied scientific themes using theoretical-methodological teaching by argumentation, particularly Stephen Toulmin's theory of argumentation, outlined and developed in his book “The Uses of Argument”. The module mentioned here was carried out in the regular discipline of Physics, where interdisciplinary themes such as space missions and races, planetary colonization and socio-environmental issues were treated. The proposal was to present basic concepts on these themes, to, from then on, conduct guided debates and dialogues, under the supervision of the researcher, with students, stimulating their argumentative capacity on these issues, making them present reasons to justify their arguments. The classes were recorded and notes were produced in a field diary, gathering a set of data that, from the analysis, allowed to investigate the nature of the arguments constructed in the classroom by the students from the perspective of Toulmin's argumentation pattern. We also reflect on the importance of such a method in science education to foster essential characteristics in young people, such as the development of intellectual autonomy and critical thinking about scientific issues.