Helping students better understand how scientists reason and argue to draw scientific conclusions has long been viewed as a critical component of scientific literacy, thus remains a central goal of science instruction. However, differences of opinion persist regarding the nature of scientific reasoning, argumentation, and discovery. Accordingly,…

Allchin (2006) has misinterpreted a classic case of hypothetico-deductive (HD) science in terms of his preferred "let's-gather-some-data-and-see-what-emerges" view. The misrepresentation concerns the research program of Peter and Rosemary Grant on Darwin's finches. The present essay argues that the Grants' research is HD in nature and includes a…

We should dispense with use of the confusing term "null hypothesis" in educational research reports. To explain why the term should be dropped, the nature of, and relationship between, scientific and statistical hypothesis testing is clarified by explication of (a) the scientific reasoning used by Gregor Mendel in testing specific…

Children personally construct explanations of natural phenomena, some of which differ from currently accepted scientific explanations. The replacement of personal explanations with scientific explanations, as well as the development of concrete, formal, and post-formal reasoning patterns, requires self-regulation in which alternative explanations…

Working from the 1970s to the early 1990s, Walter Alvarez and his research team sought the cause of the mass extinction that claimed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. The present paper discusses that research in terms of eight puzzling observations, eight episodes of hypothetico-predictive reasoning, enumerative induction, and Jung's…

What, if anything, do teachers need to know about how the brain works to improve teaching and learning? After all, a plumber needs to know how to stop leaks--not the molecular structure of water. And one can learn how to use a computer without knowing how a computer chip works. Likewise, teachers need to know how to help students develop…

Investigates the role of complex instructional analogies on concept acquisition in an introductory college genetics course. An experimental treatment included complex instructional analogies. A control group received expository instruction alone. Finds significant differences in student achievement in favor of the experimental group. (Author/MM)

This paper explicates a pattern of scientific argumentation in which scientists respond to causal questions with the generation and test of alternative hypotheses through cycles of hypothetico-predictive argumentation. Hypothetico-predictive arguments are employed to test causal claims that exist on at least two levels (designated stage 4 in which…

Disagreements exist among textbook authors, curriculum developers, and even among science and mathematics educators/researchers regarding the meanings and roles of several key nature-of-science (NOS) and nature-of-mathematics (NOM) terms such as proof, disproof, hypotheses, predictions, theories, laws, conjectures, axioms, theorems, and…

Confusion persists concerning the roles played by scientific hypotheses and predictions in doing science. This confusion extends to the nature of scientific and statistical hypothesis testing. The present paper utilizes the "If/and/then/Therefore" pattern of hypothetico-deductive (HD) reasoning to explicate the nature of both scientific and…

Criticizes Allchin's article about Lawson's analysis of Galileo's discovery of Jupiter's moons. Suggests that a careful analysis of the way humans spontaneously process information and reason supports a general hypothetico-deductive theory of human information processing, reasoning, and scientific discovery. (SOE)

Given that hypothetico-deductive reasoning has played a role in other important scientific discoveries, asks the question whether it plays a role in all important scientific discoveries. Explores and rejects as viable alternatives possible alternative scientific methods such as Baconian induction and combinatorial analysis. Discusses the…

Offers a resolution to the debate between constructivists and realists regarding the epistemological status of human knowledge. Presents evidence in the form of three case studies and one experimental study. Concludes that knowledge acquisition involves a pattern idea generation and test that, when cast in the form of a verbal argument, follows an…

Reports a procedure for training fifth and seventh grade students to substantially improve their understanding and use of controlled experimentation procedures. (SL)

Presents a descriptive analogy comparing Piaget's theory of intellectual development to the development of athletic abilities in order to provide insight into Piagetian theory. (SL)