ABSTRACT
Scientific reasoning and argumentation (SRA) is among the most valued learning outcomes, particularly in higher education programs. This chapter focuses on an understanding of SRA as a set of skills beyond intelligence and task-specific content knowledge. First, we discuss the questionable dichotomy of domain-general vs. domain-specific and propose a continuum of cross-domain skills for SRA. Second, we introduce empirical evidence and discuss the evidence for SRA being distinct from both intelligence and domain-specific knowledge. We also report on and discuss findings on how SRA skills can be facilitated within and across domains. Based on our conceptualization and the empirical evidence, we sketch a framework specifying different stages of engaging in SRA-related tasks.
