Argumentation plays a central role in the process of science and student learning. Argument-Driven Inquiry (ADI) is an instructional model developed to give a more central place to argumentation, while engaging students in scientific practices within laboratory courses. Each ADI investigation takes place over three weeks. Within the second week, students form and revise an argument pertaining to a specific guiding question. Student groups participate in an argumentation session in which they discuss the claim, evidence, and justification pieces of their argument with other groups and revise their argument when necessary. The introductory biology, chemistry, and physics laboratories at East Carolina University have been transformed to an ADI-based curriculum over the past three years. Student argumentation sessions within these labs were scored in all three disciplines using the Assessment of Scientific Argumentation in the Classroom Observational Protocol. This protocol captures the cognitive, epistemic, and social aspects of argumentation. Argumentation development over time will be discussed as well as aspects of laboratory activities that facilitate or inhibit quality argumentation.
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