Using Socioscientific Issues to Promote the Critical Thinking Skills of Year 10 Science Students in Diverse School Contexts

School science is an ideal subject to develop critical thinking skills such as argumentation. Individuals not only require an understanding of scientific concepts, but they require critical thinking skills to be able to analyse and synthesise scientific evidence. While this outcome of school science may seem simple, the field is complex with little agreement about what does and doesn’t work. Despite a mandate internationally to integrate critical thinking with science content (e.g., Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA], 2019), there are concerns and uncertainty amongst science teachers about how to develop these skills in their classrooms (Nielsen, 2012). The research presented here describes and evaluates the development of the cognitive critical thinking skill of argumentation (Facione, 1990) in science. The conceptual framework that informs this study comprises critical thinking, argumentation and socioscientific issues.