Simulation Based Assessment of Epistemological Beliefs About Science

Comprehensive science education includes increasing content knowledge, teaching skills and practices like inquiry or argumentation, and fostering sophisticated beliefs about the nature of science knowledge (epistemological beliefs about science, EBAS). EBAS are difficult to define and assess. Prior work suggested that student practices in authentic activities may be reflective of underlying EBAS. Therefore, one potential solution is to assess EBAS via student science practices. We previously examined student inquiry practices in the simulated authentic science inquiry environment, SCI (Science Classroom Inquiry). We extend this prior work to examine a different science practice situated in the SCI environment: concluding arguments. We found that students who performed more scientifically authentic investigations also made more sophisticated scientific arguments. We also noted that performance on the EBAS assessment predicted not only inquiry quality, but argument quality as well. This suggests that argumentation, in addition to inquiry, is a practice that can be captured with technology and used as a proxy for assessing latent constructs like EBAS.