Making Science Education More Natural - Some Ideas from the Argumentative Theory of Reasoning

The benefits of the exchange of arguments for science education are well established. The argumentative theory of reasoning is in a good position to explain these benefits. It claims that the main function of reasoning is to argue: to produce arguments to convince others, and to evaluate others' arguments in order to be convinced when, and only when, warranted. This theory explains why solitary reasoning often leads to poor reasoning performance, while the social exchange of arguments often leads to good reasoning performance. It also suggests that the best way to learn how to reason well is to reason with others. In this article, I attempt to integrate the findings from the other articles of the special issue into this framework.