(1516.pdf) ENCOURAGING STUDENTS TO TAKE A STAND: USING PRIMARY LITERATURE TO SUPPORT SCIENTIFIC ARGUMENTS

摘要

The establishment of a scientific idea as an accepted paradigm in specific fields of science requiresthe rigors of experimentation and scrutiny by both proponents and opponents of the idea. This ofteninvolves the proposal of a working hypothesis, experimentation, analysis of data by the researchers,arguments in support of a hypothesis based on the data and submission of the arguments in the formof a manuscript for peer-review in scientific journals. After the necessary examination and queries byreviewers, the researchers might need to argue for acceptance in the journal by supporting theirhypothesis with more experimental data and answering queries from the reviewers. For a piece ofscientific work to gain acceptance in a journal or in the field of study requires arguments based ondata between researchers and reviewers or opponents of the work. This is crucial for scientificresearch, as it is through evidence-based arguments that better ideas emerge that are supported byrigorous testing and examination of data for and against the ideas.