Orchestrating Critical Reading and Argumentative Writing During Collaborative Online Inquiry

• In Event: Reading in the Digital Age: Affordances and Consequences for Learning, Judgment, and Performance

Abstract

Objectives/Purpose
On the Internet, answers to open-ended problems are rarely found from a single source. Students encounter diverse sources with different purposes and quality of information (Kuiper et al., 2005). To make sense of controversial issues, learners require skills in organizing, evaluating, comparing and contrasting information from multiple sources (Britt & Rouet, 2012) and in moving beyond their own perspective (Barzalai & Zohar, 2012). This study tested the efficacy of an Online Inquiry Tool (Killi et al., 2016) designed to support students’ online reading skills while engaged in synthesizing online argumentative texts around a controversial issue.
Theoretical Framework
A new literacies perspective of online reading comprehension (Leu et al., 2013) underlies the rationale for a digital tool that supports online inquiry. This perspective suggests reading on the Internet requires new comprehension strategies to effectively generate essential questions, and locate, critically evaluate, synthesize, and communicate relevant answers to others. The Online Inquiry Tool is designed to support these practices while optimizing cognitive load that directly contributes to learning and minimizing extraneous load (Chipperfield, 2006). Research also suggests that collaborative discussion and argumentation may promote students’ deep-level understanding of content (Nussbaum, 2008). Thus, we sought to illuminate the benefits of collaborative online reading when compared to individual reading while exploring a controversial issue on the Internet.
Method
Participants included an academically and culturally diverse range of students in Grades 9-11 from intact groups of ten language arts classes in the US (N=120) and Finland (N=249). Students (working either individually or collaboratively) conducted online research with the online tool and wrote a source-based argumentative essay about either a) allowing genetic modification of organisms (GMO) or b) effects of social media (SM) on people’s quality of life. Students were free to choose their topic, either individually or with their partner.
Data sources included teacher- and researcher-designed argumentation scenarios, filled argument graphs, completed essays, and student responses to surveys of prior knowledge, work preference, and Internet experience. Rubrics assessed performance on variables related to quality of online reading processes and source-based essays. A series of 2X2 ANCOVA’s and follow-up t-tests analyzed effects of tool use and working mode.
Results
Higher mean scores across many variables suggest some students benefitted from using the Online Inquiry Tool and/or from working with a partner during inquiry tasks. However, interaction effects suggest the impact of tool use and partner work is likely influenced by differences in inquiry topic, students’ previous academic performance, prior knowledge, and how paired students worked together during inquiry. Thus, tool use alone is not sufficient and should be paired with explicit instruction that supports both online reading and collaboration.
Significance
This study builds on previous work (Castek et al., 2012; Kiili, 2012; Coiro et al., 2014) to highlight digital and instructional scaffolds useful for supporting the challenges of reading multiple online sources and writing argumentative texts. Findings point the way toward specific strategies for enhancing deeper engagement with online texts in the digital age.

Authors

• Julie Coiro, University of Rhode Island

• Carita Kiili, University of Oslo