In the field of science education, recent studies have begun to focus on argumentation skills, thereby indicating the importance of intentionally encouraging students to present rebuttals. Based on this trend, teaching strategies have been proposed to encourage such rebuttals. However, within Japanese science education field, a focus on rebuttals is not apparent in almost any known teaching strategy. Hence, using elementary science lessons as a case study, this research aims to investigate, the efficacy of teaching strategies in the IDEAS teaching materials, as proposed by Osborne et al., in promoting rebuttals.
First, this study reviewed teaching strategies as proposed by the IDEAS teaching materials. Next, lessons reflecting these strategies were conducted with elementary school students. Subsequently, records of argumentative utterances collected during lessons were evaluated and measured against the efficacy of the teaching strategy used. As a result of this evaluation, it was revealed that the number of students who developed their argumentation skills, including the skill to offer rebuttals, increased significantly between the beginning and end of the lessons. From this result, it became clear that the teaching strategy indicated by the IDEAS teaching materials has a certain amount of efficacy. It was also apparent, however, that by the end of the lesson, some students were unable to offer rebuttals. Thus, improving teaching strategies should be focused on in the future.