Exposure to Dialogic Instruction During COVID-19 Benefits Students' Argumentative Writing: Evidence From Propensity Score Analysis

• In Event: Friday Roundtable Session 9:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Rethinking Innovative Pedagogies for Mulilingual Learners (Table 28)

Abstract

Children possess an intuitive understanding of argumentation (Dunn, 1988; Dunn & Munn, 1987), but they often fail to adequately justify their opinions or consider other perspectives in their oral and written arguments (Authors, 2023; Kuhn, 1991; NCES, 2012; Perkins et al., 1991; Stanovich, 2003). Instruction to improve students' argumentation often includes dialogic activities (Authors, 2019; Harris & Mason, 2023; Kuhn et al., 2023; Murphy & Firetto, 2017; Rapanta & Felton, 2022; Reznitskaya et al., 2009). The current study reports about the efficacy of a dialogic intervention delivered during the Covid-19 pandemic. Propensity score analyses showed that instructional exposure was strongly related to gains in middle-school students' knowledge of argumentative discourse and the quality of their argumentative writing.

Authors

• Ralph P. Ferretti, College of Eucation and Human Development

• Yi Song, Educational Testing Service

• Haobai Zhang, University of Delaware

• Hilary Mead, University of Delaware

• Zachary K. Collier, University of Connecticut

• John P. Sabatini, University of Memphis