From a causal question to stating and testing hypotheses: Exploring the discursive activity of biology students

Abstract

This paper aims at exploring the discursive activity of one group of second year biology students during their collaboration on a task of stating and testing hypotheses to answer a causal question. The specific task is a part of a didactic sequence that was developed in the context of genetic engineering considering aspects of situated-learning theory, with the aim of providing students the opportunity to 'talk science' with their peers as participants of a hypothetical gene cloning project. Our focus is set on certain cognitive aspects of peers' discourse. Hence, this paper is concerned with the construction of arguments, particularly on the level of argumentative operations (e.g. claims, justifications, challenges) and the context-bound epistemic operations (e.g. abducting, appealing to instances) activated by peers in order to produce a joint answer to the task's causal question. Furthermore, it is concerned with the development of the 'ifthen' hypothetical-deductive reasoning pattern potentially involved in peers' hypothesis-testing process. © 2005 Springer.