The Effectiveness of Argument-Driven Inquiry in Promoting Students’ Argumentation Skills About Colloids

This study aimed to investigate the effect of argument-driven inquiry (ADI) in promoting students' argumentation skills about colloidal concepts in comparison to inquiry-based learning (IbL) strategy. Factors that affected the students’ skills between the strategies were also identified. Three classes of 11 grade students (ADI-1, ADI-2, IbL) were involved. Data were collected using field-notes and argumentation tests and then analyzed using the interpretive method and the one-way ANOVA test. The results of the ANOVA test showed significant difference of skills amongst the classes (Fvalue=27.671, sig<.05). Tukey HSD test however showed that the mean scores of ADI-1 and ADI-2 were indifferent (mean=88.89 & 88.48, SD=4.73 & 4.40, sig>.05) but both were significantly different from the IbL (mean=80.98, SD=4.90, sig<.05). Therefore, ADI was more effective than the IbL strategy in promoting the students’ argumentation skills about the colloidal concepts. Different experiences the students had in the three classes were the factor that produced the skill differences between the students.