Development and Evaluation of Classes Encouraging Judgment of Masticatory Behavior Based on Scientific Evidence: A Fourth Grade Elementary School Class “Structure and Movement of Human Body” with “Argu-made”

Abstract

This study aimed to develop and evaluate a new class to support the construction of arguments and encourage students to make judgments about masticatory behavior based on scientific evidence while supporting the teaching method proposed by Matsuyama and Yamamoto (2023c) in the fourth grade elementary school class, “Structure and Movement of Human Body.” We developed a system called “Argu-made” to support the following three guiding principles: (1) to support the construction of arguments by facilitating the use of what has been learned from discussions in learning activities, (2) to encourage the examination of reasoning by facilitating opinion exchanges, and (3) to encourage the comparison of evidence by facilitating the sharing of experimental results. The worksheet evaluation results showed that in the description of arguments, the students were generally able to judge masticatory behavior using their knowledge as a scientific basis. The transfer test revealed that the students were able to apply scientific evidence to consider the importance of masticatory behavior and how to make it a habit. “Argu-made” helped construct arguments of claim, evidence, and reasoning, promoting scientific understanding and judgment regarding the students’ masticatory behavior.