el desempeño de las competencias científicas de uso de pruebas y ...

Argumentation is acknowledged as an integral part of learning science,
contributing to goals such as engaging students in epistemic (scientific) practices,
and emphasizing the role of discourse in the construction of scientific knowledge.
Science is a social practice, and argumentation supports participation in the
processes of knowledge construction, evaluation and communication (Kelly,
2008a; 2011). In this perspective the practice of using evidence is a central feature
of knowledge evaluation (Jiménez Aleixandre, 2008). However, argumentation
studies have identified serious shortcomings about how students use evidence: for
instance in using criteria about empirical consistency with evidence in order to
evaluate the validity of a claim (Hogan & Maglienti, 2001) or in explaining how a
given piece of evidence provided support for a claim (Sandoval & Millwood,
2005). In this study we are interested in identifying students' difficulties in using
evidence, and we seek to go beyond that, by characterizing increasing levels of
complexity of the use of evidence, and exploring how to use these pathways to
support students' engagement in this practice.
The notion of learning progressions (LP) offers a fruitful perspective to address
the development of the competence in using evidence. In the literature about LP
most papers deal with scientific concepts and only a few with scientific practices,
as modelling (Schwarz et al., 2009) and argumentation (Berland & McNeill,
2010). Our study, as Berland and McNeill's addresses the scientific practice of
argumentation, but differs from theirs in its focus on a particular process making
part of argumentation, the use of evidence.
The use of scientific models to explain phenomena: Modelling and external
representations
Natural and physical sciences have as a goal to explain the material world. To do
so, scientists use theories and models. Models can be defined as representations of
a phenomenon, simplifications of the phenomenon to be used in inquiries to
develop explanations of it (Gilbert, Boulter & Elmer, 2000). These models are not
immutable but are continually reviewed by the scientific community using
empirical and conceptual criteria. In science it is important for students to learn
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