Using Critical Questions to Evaluate Arguments in an Undergraduate General Education Seminar: A Quasi-Experimental Study

• In Event: Poster Session 3
  In Poster Session: Students' Learning Strategies and Interventions

Abstract

This study explores the effects of teaching students to ask critical questions for evaluating argument strength using argument vee diagrams (AVDs). The study was conducted in three sections of an undergraduate general education seminar. Two sections used AVDs with a box containing critical questions; one section used AVDs without critical questions. Students completed AVDs prior and during oral discussions on social issues. Students in the treatment condition included more refutations related to the critical questions in their AVD arguments. There were also unprompted transfer effects on refutations to an in-class essay but not to a position paper on whistleblowing; however treatment students did include more moral principles in their papers. We explain these results in terms of argumentation schema theory.

Authors

• Michael Nussbaum, University of Nevada - Las Vegas

• Ian J. Dove, University of Nevada - Las Vegas

• Nathan Slife, The University of Nevada, Las Vegas

• CarolAnne M. Kardash, University of Nevada - Las Vegas

• Refika Turgut, University of South Carolina - Upstate

• David B. Vallett, University of Nevada - Las Vegas