PRIMARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING ARGUMENTS: IDENTIFYING CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR SCIENCE TEACHING

Tomokazu Yamamoto; Shinichi Kamiyama; Tatsuya Tanaka; Etsuji Yamaguchi

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PRIMARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING ARGUMENTS: IDENTIFYING CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR SCIENCE TEACHING

Title	PRIMARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING ARGUMENTS: IDENTIFYING CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR SCIENCE TEACHING
Publication Type	Journal Article
Year of Publication	2022
Authors	Yamamoto, T, Kamiyama, S, Tanaka, T, Yamaguchi, E
Journal	Journal of Baltic Science Education
Volume	21
Issue	3
Start Page	445-461
Pagination	Continuous
Date Published	June/2022
Type of Article	Original article
ISSN	1648-3898
Other Numbers	E-ISSN 2538-7138
Keywords	difficulties in writing arguments, elementary/primary school, explanation construction, small-sample quantitative study
Abstract	In science education, the improvement in students’ ability to construct arguments at the primary school level has been reported. Although these studies have identified difficulties in arguments written by primary school students, they do not indicate areas that require improvement in teaching methods. This study aims to explore the possibility of improvement in early primary school students’ ability to construct arguments and identify the types of difficulties encountered. Sixty-seven Japanese third-grade students (9–10 years old) were taught to write arguments as specified by Zembal-Saul et al. (2012). The students were given two writing tasks before and after the lesson. To examine the students’ written arguments, each component of claim, evidence, and reasoning was scored based on a rubric. On comparing the scores of the pre-test and post-test writing tasks, it was found that 27 out of 67 students still had difficulty writing arguments during the post-test. An analysis of the students’ writing revealed four types of difficulties: ‘Incompleteness of components’, ‘Inappropriateness of components’, ‘Confusion between evidence and reasoning’, and ‘Confusion between claim and evidence’. This study offers insights pertaining to teaching implications and research recommendations.
URL	https://oaji.net/articles/2022/987-1656443883.pdf
DOI	10.33225/jbse/22.21.445
Refereed Designation	Refereed
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