The present study defined four types of stances/positions in students' argumentation regarding socio-scientific issues (SSIs): affirmative (A), oppositional (O), multiple (M), and non-committal (N) positions. The central goal of this study was to examine the effect of students' positions toward an issue on the science conceptual understanding and quality of their arguments. Three types of debates were concerned due to their abundant production of arguments: the debates between the (1) O vs. A, (2) O vs. M, and (3) O vs. N position students. The...
