Students' scientific argumentation skills based on differences in academic ability

Abstract

One of the skills students must possess in the 21st-century biology learning is scientific argumentation skills. Scientific argumentation skills are associated with a strong understanding of concepts and improved critical thinking skills and scientific literacy. The purpose of this study was to investigate the scientific argumentation skills of high school students with different academic abilities. The current study was designed as a survey which involved tenth graders from two public senior schools, SMAN 3 Malang and SMAN 7 Malang. The first served as the representative of students with high academic ability and the latter was appointed to represent the low achievers. The data were analyzed using an independent-samples t-test. The results showed that there were significant differences between the high and ability students' scientific argumentation skills with a p-value of 0.003. Around 10.34% of the high achievers could perform level 1 argumentation skills, 74.41% of them were able to achieve level 2, and 17.24% of the students reported level 3 responses. Among the students with low academic ability, 12% had reached level 1 argumentation skills and 88% of them were only able to achieve level 2, indicating that no one (0%) could answer the test with level 3 responses. This condition suggests that it is important to implement an innovative learning.