Kate McNeill: Making Your Case

Intel® Innovation in Education plans to introduce its newest thinking tool in 2005, expanding the suite of online tools available for teachers to use with their students. The new tool is designed to support learners in the process of making well-reasoned, well-supported arguments. Developed in collaboration with cognitive scientists and now in the pilot phase, the tool is being tested for classroom use by experienced teachers.

	Kate McNeill sees educational value in argumentation.

Why is making a sound argument a skill worth learning? What kind of support do students need to be successful at argumentation? Kate McNeill of the University of Michigan has been considering these questions in her doctoral research in science education. Recently, we spoke with her about the higher-order thinking skills involved in making a good argument.

How did you get interested in the educational value of argumentation?

Before graduate school, I spent three years teaching sixth- and seventh-grade science in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. As a teacher, I definitely saw students struggle with producing claims and supporting those claims with evidence. Often, students want to write as few words as possible, and it can be difficult to support students in elaborating on their responses. Also, in doing science research, students come across different data. It's hard for students to understand what are the appropriate data to use in order to support their claims. What evidence can they disregard because it's not valid? What valid counter-evidence do they need to consider? How do they construct a rebuttal for an argument? If students are used to rote memorization, it can be hard for them to use more complicated reasoning skills. I'm interested in finding ways to scaffold students in science inquiry practices, including argumentation.

What kind of support helps students develop more complex reasoning abilities?

"Once you connect science with the world outside the classroom, students see why they may actually need to understand this. It has real-world applications."

As a teacher, you can model the kinds of practices you want students to perform. You can show them what a good argument looks like, both orally and in writing. It's also valuable to compare weak and strong arguments, and help students think about how they could make a weak argument stronger. Another kind of scaffolding is to make the rationale and framework behind arguments explicit for students. You can bring examples from real life into the classroom, such as from the newspaper, magazines, or the Internet. Then you can examine these arguments to help students see the components of evidence, reasoning, and counter-evidence that they need to consider.

Do the real-life examples take learning deeper?

One of our goals is to help students become more scientifically literate. They may be confronted in the media with debates about cloning or genetically modified foods. As a teacher, you can help them step back and ask: Are these so-called experts making a strong argument? Can they make a case for what they say is true? Students will also start to realize that, a lot of times, there isn't one right answer. It's not right or wrong. By understanding that there are different ways of making arguments, students will start to bring their own understanding and perspective to anything they are confronted with in the news. Once you connect science with the world outside the classroom, students see why they may actually need to understand this. It has real-world applications.

Sounds as if this goes beyond scientific literacy?

Absolutely. Argumentation can be applied across almost any domain-history, English, mathematics. What counts as evidence? What is strong backing going to look like? In all domains, people are making cases for something. They're making a claim and trying to support it. By teaching the inquiry process across domains and giving students a framework for making arguments, you are giving them a different way of approaching questions. They can see how this kind of thinking applies to their everyday life.

How will our newest thinking tool support this learning process?

It will help teachers and students see how this general framework—for making a sound argument—cuts across all different disciplines. Teachers can use the tool to encourage looking at different types of evidence. How does the evidence support students' claims? What is the strength or value of that evidence? As students use the Internet for research, this tool can give them a frame for thinking about how different data points fit into a larger argument. It will also help them assess what they find on the Internet. How valid is the information? The flexibility of this tool is one of its strengths. You can use it with a range of ages and across a variety of disciplines. As students move from middle school to high school, they can learn to build more complex arguments in any subject area. Over time, the tool can help students become more adept at complex problem solving, both in school and in their everyday lives.

To learn more about the suite of thinking tools available from Intel Innovation in Education, go to www.intel.com/education/tools.