University Students' Learning of Argument-Counterarguments to Examine an Ill-Structured Issue Regarding Africans and African Americans

• In Event: Roundtable Session 6
  In Roundtable Session: Microaggressions Across College and University Contexts

Abstract

Since students rule out opposing views to their arguments, criteria instruction and collaborative reasoning were implemented to teach argument-counterargument integration with the intention of helping university students explore existing perceptions of Africans and African Americans. This topic was selected due to the present predicaments faced in higher education and a growing concern that the perceptions of Blacks are stereotypical in nature. A pretest-posttest design was used on experimental and control groups with 33 participants. The control group received basic instruction in argumentative writing (e.g., writing style and essay structure) while the experimental group received extensive instruction and practice integrating argument-counterarguments. The results demonstrate the efficacy of teaching argument-counterargument to examine ill-structured issues as the experimental group earned higher posttest scores.

Authors

• Olubusayo Olojo, South University

• Jazlin Ebenezer, Wayne State University