Argument

Argumentation is "a verbal, social, and rational activity aimed at convincing a reasonable critic of the acceptability of a standpoint by putting forward a constellation of propositions justifying or refuting the proposition expressed in the standpoint" (Van Eemeren&Grootendorst, cited in Chin&Osborne, 2010, p.231)

"In everyday usage, an argument is an unpleasant situation in which two or more people have differing opinions and become heated in their discussion of this difference. A somewhat different view of the term "argument" comes from the tradition of formal debate, in which contestants are scored on arguments that favor a particular position or point of view or disfavor the opposing one Argumentation in science has a different and less combative or competitive role than either of these forms (Kuhn, 1991). It is a mode of logical discourse whose goal is to tease out the relationship between ideas and the evidence-for example, to decide what a theory or hypothesis predicts for a given circumstance, or whether a proposed explanation is consistent or not with some new observation" (TSS Chapter 2, pg. 33). It is important that students learn through experience the significance of scientific argumentation, as well as the idea that the goal of this form of argumentation is not to win. Instead, it is to engage in a discussion through which overall understanding can be improved (TSS Chapter 2).