Argumentative Discourse Skill Development in Online Educational Simulations: How George Carlin Can Teach Critical Thinking

• In Event: Anne Frank Confronts Queen Isabella: Learning Phenomena in Historical, Cultural, and Social Online Simulation Games

Abstract

Objectives:
Currently, there is an absence of systematic research in communication on the instructional practices for developing students’ argument discourse skills. This is surprising, as critical thinking and argument skills are significant for developing a range of competencies for participating in society (Kuhn, 2005; Yeh, 2002). Hence, our focus in this research is on argument discourse skill development, and testing the effectiveness of a particular intervention – online educational games - for enhancing argument skills.

Perspectives:
Communication researchers, particularly constructivist communication researchers, have documented a set of developmental changes in children and adolescents’ argument skills. These include the inclusion of listener-adapted justifications, reflective judgments of evidence, and the ability to critique each other’s reasoning (Kline & Delia, 1990). Still, education researchers continue to document that the argument skills of most adolescents and young adults are not sufficient, since many young adults lack the ability or tendency to construct two-sided arguments, distinguish between evidence and explanation, or between belief and evidence (Kuhn & Udell, 2003). To cope with this problem, several groups of education researchers have relied upon Vygotskian and dialogic concepts (Wertsch, 1991) to focus on the role of social collaboration and scaffolded interactions to design interventions that advance children’s reasoning abilities. This research considers the effectiveness of reasoning in the development of online educational simulations.

Modes of inquiry:
This examination will be expressed in the analysis of (a) counterarguments in which participants critiqued their interactants’ contributions, (b) arguments that did not offer a functional justification, (c) the number of functional arguments that indicated the consequences, appropriateness or value of a claim, and (d) the functional arguments that indicated how alternatives to an expressed standpoint were not as effective, appropriate, or valued. These measures are adapted from previous research in student argumentation skill (Kuhn & Udell, 2003) and have been found to have strong coding reliability and applicability in the context of Place Out of Time in previous work (names removed for review).

Data sources:
This research will examine a specific computer simulation called, Place Out of Time, which involved 168 students in five schools from middle through graduate school over a 10 week time period. This analysis will consider both the public and private discourse of middle school, high school, and university students, with a focus on the development of the ability to produce written argument.

Results:
Previous work (names removed for review) found that, over the course of the 10 week time period, two of the four measurements of argument skills were found to increase: middle school students increased their tendency to produce specific critiques to each other’s arguments and produce functional justifications. It is hypothesized that both middle school and high school students, in both private and public discourse, will increase their use of high level argument skill over the course of participation in this simulation.

Scholarly significance:
With consideration of findings, the significance of the platform as an educational tool, and effectiveness of certain features of the virtual architecture will be discussed.

Authors

• Jonathan D'Angelo, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Susan Kline, The Ohio State University