Poster #26 - Integrating the Opposing Side Without Stating It: The Emergence of Counterargument in Fourth- to Eighth-Grade Writing

• In Event: 25.087 - MTCC Poster Session Four
  In Poster Session: 25.087-4 - Youth, Power, Reflection, and the Word

Abstract

The study characterized 4th-to-8th graders’ emerging engagement with the opposing position (Kuhn & Crowell, 2011) in argumentative writing. Each of 530 students’ argumentative essays was segmented into claims and reasons (Toulmin, 1958/2003). Consistent with previous research, pilot analyses showed that only 12.5% of the students stated claims for the opposing position, suggesting low-level argumentation skills. However, when providing reasons for their favored position, as many as 60% of the students described the consequences if the opposing side wins, or provided solutions to the problems that the opposing side might raise. The result suggests that young adolescent writers have implicitly engaged with the opposing position when reasoning for their favored position, before explicitly writing from the opposing perspective.

Authors

• Ziyun Deng, Harvard University

• Paola Uccelli, Harvard University