Digging Deeper into Dialogic Feedback: Evaluating How Science Teachers Manage Uncertainty as a Predictor of Students’ Ability to Construct an Epistemically Sound Argument

Abstract

In this study, we examined the relationship between the use of two teachers’ dialogue feedback as an educational practice to promote evidence-based argumentation in middle school science lessons and the students’ ability to create scientific arguments in a standardized critical thinking exam. The teachers had an equal amount of training on Argument-Based Inquiry (ABI) and taught in a federally-identified low-income school. When the patterns of talk were analyzed, divergent themes emerged and feedback that promoted critique correlated with student achievement on the critical thinking exam.