Impact of Student Assessment Activities on Claim and Evidence Formation in High School Argument-Based Inquiry

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of student assessment activities on claim and evidence formation in argument-based inquiry (ABI) for high school students. The participants of the study were 166 grade 10 students from six different classes in the same high school. The experimental group (84 students) was taught Argument-Based Inquiry with students' self and peer assessment activities. The comparative group (82 students) was taught without the activities. Over one semester students participated in five ABI programs that we developed. According to the analysis of the claim and evidence from groups, the experimental group had a significantly higher mean score than the comparative group. The result of analysis of students' assessment in the experimental group, the frequency about accurate and sufficient evidence revealed to be high and students assessed whether peers' claims fit with the evidence and whether peers' explanations of the evidence's validity was sufficient. Students' answers in the survey and interviews showed that the students though they could improve the accuracy of their ideas, appropriateness of their evidence, and the method of presenting evidence based on the assessment results.