Adolescent Students' Command of Perspective Taking in Argumentative Essay Writing

• In Event: 26.030 - An Innovative Social Justice Curriculum Through the Eyes of Students

Abstract

Perspective Taking (PT) skills are important for developing social awareness and the cognitive processes that facilitate successful academic performance. The Word Generation curriculum encourages students to build skills in considering multiple perspectives and hypothetical scenarios using discussions and debates involving controversial topics. However, middle schoolers, as adolescents, are still transitioning towards more sophisticated levels of PT and cognition (Selman, 2003; Martin, Sokol, & Elfers, 2008). Thus, it is crucial to examine how 7th graders show evidence of PT abilities in their academic writing, given curricular support for such skills. This study investigates three questions: What levels of PT are displayed across 50 seventh grade argumentative essays on a single essay topic? Do more frequent or higher level PT correlate with higher essay quality scores? Lastly, are there differences across 4 separate essay topics in students’ average PT frequency and level?

Fifty 7th grade essays on one specific topic were coded for the total instances of PT and for the highest PT level reached, distinguishing Acknowledgement (lowest level), Articulation, and Positioning (highest level; CCDD, 2012). Next, essay quality scores were averaged from two independent essay graders’ scores using an adaptation of the state accountability-system scoring guide and their judgment of the essays’ overall persuasiveness. Additionally, 66 more essays, spanning three separate topics, were coded and compared to essays from the first topic to observe any PT differences across essay topics.

Students’ PT frequency ranged from 0 to 11 instances with an average of 4.14 (s.d. = 2.81). The average PT level was 1.82 (s.d. = .83), close to level two. The correlation between PT frequency and essay score was .86, while the correlation between PT level and essay quality score was .67. Eight out of 9 essays that reached PT level three obtained high scores of 4 or 5. This phenomenon occurred even for level three essays that had a low overall PT frequency.

Students did not demonstrate significant differences in average PT frequency, PT level, or essay quality score related to topic. However, while on topic one (“Should Drugs be Legalized?”) 16% of students reached level three, and on topic two (“Extending the School Day”) 14% of students did so, on topic three (“Explicit Photos and Cell Phones”) 27% of students reached level three and on topic four (“School Dress Codes”) only 5%.

These results present evidence that a sophisticated command of PT in argumentative essay writing (both in PT frequency and PT level) may contribute to higher essay quality. Moreover, essay prompts may have an effect on students’ motivation to attempt level three PT in their responses, as more controversial prompts may interest students more than conventionally safe prompts. Hence, educators can consider teaching PT levels in their writing instruction and select controversial topics as they see fit for their classrooms.

Author

• Kathleen Zheng, Harvard University