Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Learning by arguing

2019; Elsevier BV; Volume: 63; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.learninstruc.2019.05.004

1873-3263

Kalypso Iordanou, Deanna Kuhn, Flora Albuquerque Matos, Yuchen Shi, Laura Hemberger,

Educational Strategies and Epistemologies

Can argumentation practice simultaneously promote knowledge acquisition while advancing skill in the practice itself? We examine the effectiveness of a dialog-based argument curriculum in fostering middle-school students' knowledge acquisition as well as dialogic and written argumentation skill with respect to a content-rich, socially significant topic. Results of two studies, one involving a physical science topic and the other a social topic, showed a single intervention could meet both objectives, Study 1 following a previously used model of extended intervention (nine sessions over five weeks) and Study 2 experimenting with a dense model of six intervention hours completed over two days. Both were found effective. A novel question-and-answer method was found superior to a traditional one in promoting acquisition of factual knowledge sufficient to support argumentation. With respect to skill gains, a prompt to consider incongruent evidence showed the greatest effect in furthering mastery of a critical argument skill – to acknowledge and address, rather than ignore, evidence that counters one's favored position.