Assessing scientific genres of explanation, argument, and prediction

Student learning in science involves developing mastery of scientific genres in speech and writing, including argument, explanation, and prediction. Each of these genres involves uses of language that are rooted in scientific knowledge and practice. However, student learning of these scientific genres is complicated because students also encounter arguments, explanations, and predictions in many other contexts in their homes and communities and in the media. This chapter reports on the development of assessments of students’ performance in situations where they are asked to develop or critique arguments, explanations, and predictions that could draw on scientific knowledge and practices. The chapter illustrates how learning progression frameworks, which describe trajectories from less sophisticated, informal discourse to more sophisticated, scientific discourse, and associated assessments can be used to examine students’ developing capacity to produce scientific explanations, arguments, and predictions.]