Using Argumentation Vee Diagrams (AVDs) for Promoting Argument-Counterargument Integration in Reflective Writing.

This study examined a new prewriting tool, argumentation vee diagrams (AVDs), which are used to write reflective opinion essays. AVDs are based on the theoretical concept of argument-counterargument integration, which involves evaluating and integrating both sides of an issue before developing a final conclusion on a controversial question. In a test of the effectiveness of AVDs, 45 undergraduates at a large, southwestern university were randomly assigned to an experimental or control group. Both groups wrote 4 opinion essays over a 4-week period. The experimental group also received training on using the AVDs, including instruction on criteria for weighing arguments. Results indicated that AVD training was effective in enhancing argument-counterargument integration. Furthermore, examination of integration strategies used by participants revealed a new strategy, minimization, which was not previously part of E. M. Nussbaum and G. Schraw's (2007) argument-counterargument integration framework. Minimization involves curtailing the importance or extensiveness of a problem or advantage as a heuristic shortcut for weighing advantages and disadvantages. The role of critical questions and argumentation schemata in argument-counterargument integration is discussed.

[1]  Richard Fulkerson,et al.  Teaching the Argument in Writing , 1996 .

[2]  D. Kuhn.  Education for Thinking , 1986, Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education.

[3]  James B. Freeman,et al.  Dialectics and the Macrostructure of Arguments , 1991 .

[4]  Joseph Krajcik,et al.  Teacher Practices that Support Students' Construction of Scientific Explanations in Middle School Classrooms , 2004, ICLS.

[5]  Mark Vorobej,et al.  A Theory of Argument , 2006 .

[6]  D. Suthers,et al.  “Mapping to know”: The effects of representational guidance and reflective assessment on scientific inquiry , 2002 .

[7]  D. McCutchen.  A capacity theory of writing: Working memory in composition , 1996 .

[8]  P. Coirier,et al.  Foundations of argumentative text processing , 2000 .

[9]  Gerd Gigerenzer,et al.  Models of ecological rationality: the recognition heuristic. , 2002, Psychological review.

[10]  Ruth E. Knudson.  An analysis of persuasive discourse: Learning how to take a stand , 1994 .

[11]  Richard Andrews,et al.  Learning to argue , 1997 .

[12]  J. Osborne,et al.  Establishing the norms of scientific argumentation in classrooms , 2000 .

[13]  Gijsbert Erkens,et al.  Collaborative Learning, Reasoning, and Technology , 2005 .

[14]  Ch. Perelman,et al.  The New Rhetoric: A Treatise on Argumentation , 1971 .

[15]  William F. Brewer,et al.  An empirical test of a taxonomy of responses to anomalous data in science. , 1998 .

[16]  Paul Stapleton,et al.  Assessing Critical Thinking in the Writing of Japanese University Students , 2001 .

[17]  Miika Marttunen,et al.  Assessing argumentation skills among finnish university students , 1994 .

[18]  Stuart S. Yeh.  Empowering Education: Teaching Argumentative Writing to Cultural Minority Middle-School Students , 1998, Research in the Teaching of English.

[19]  Selma Leitão,et al.  The Potential of Argument in Knowledge Building , 2000, Human Development.

[20]  M. Finocchiaro.  Arguments about Arguments: Systematic, Critical, and Historical Essays In Logical Theory , 2005 .

[21]  J. Osborne.  Best Practices in Quantitative Methods , 2009 .

[22]  Charles P. Smith.  Motivation and personality: Name Index , 1992 .

[23]  R. Ferretti,et al.  The effects of an elaborated goal on the persuasive writing of students with learning disabilities and their normally achieving peers. , 2000 .

[24]  C. Kardash,et al.  The Effects of Goal Instructions and Text on the Generation of Counterarguments During Writing. , 2005 .

[25]  E. Michael Nussbaum,et al.  Putting the pieces together: Online argumentation vee diagrams enhance thinking during discussions , 2007, Int. J. Comput. Support. Collab. Learn..

[26]  S. Erduran,et al.  TAPping into argumentation: Developments in the application of Toulmin's Argument Pattern for studying science discourse , 2004 .

[27]  Gregory J. Kelly,et al.  Students’ reasoning about electricity: combining performance assessments with argumentation analysis , 1998 .

[28]  Cathy Collins Block,et al.  Comprehension Instruction: Research-Based Best Practices , 2001 .

[29]  Deanna Kuhn,et al.  The Development of Argumentive Discourse Skill , 2001 .

[30]  D. Walton.  A Pragmatic Theory of Fallacy , 1995 .

[31]  Richard C. Anderson,et al.  Influence of Oral Discussion on Written Argument , 2001 .

[32]  J. Tenenbaum,et al.  Optimal Predictions in Everyday Cognition , 2006, Psychological science.

[33]  Richard C. Anderson,et al.  The Snowball Phenomenon: Spread of Ways of Talking and Ways of Thinking Across Groups of Children , 2001 .

[34]  Ralph H. Johnson.  Manifest Rationality: A Pragmatic Theory of Argument , 2000 .

[35]  D. Kuhn.  THE SKILLS OF ARGUMENT , 2008, Education for Thinking.

[36]  Tom Russell.  Analyzing arguments in science classroom discourse: Can teachers' questions distort scientific authority? , 1983 .

[37]  Charles Arthur Willard,et al.  On the utility of descriptive diagrams for the analysis and criticism of arguments , 1976 .

[38]  M. Linn,et al.  Computers, Teachers, Peers: Science Learning Partners , 2000 .

[39]  M. Linn,et al.  Scientific arguments as learning artifacts: designing for learning from the web with KIE , 2000 .

[40]  L. S. Vygotskiĭ,et al.  Mind in society : the development of higher psychological processes , 1978 .

[41]  Robbie Case,et al.  The Mind's Staircase: Exploring the Conceptual Underpinnings of Children's Thought and Knowledge , 1991 .

[42]  R. Mayer.  Thinking, Problem Solving, Cognition , 1983 .

[43]  Timothy J. Duggan,et al.  Writing to Learn across the Curriculum: Tools for Comprehension in Content Area Classes. , 2006 .

[44]  John R. Anderson.  The Adaptive Character of Thought , 1990 .

[45]  Irwin Mallin,et al.  Inviting Constructive Argument , 2000 .

[46]  Marilyn J. Chambliss,et al.  Fourth and Fifth Graders Representing the Argument Structure in Written Texts , 2002 .

[47]  Richard Paul,et al.  California Teacher Preparation for Instruction in Critical Thinking: Research Findings and Policy Recommendations. , 1997 .

[48]  Matthew W. Keefer,et al.  Judging the Quality of Peer-Led Student Dialogues , 2000 .

[49]  R. Duschl,et al.  "Doing the Lesson" or "Doing Science": Argument in High School Genetics , 2000 .

[50]  Lucia Mason,et al.  Argumentation Structure and Metacognition in Constructing Shared Knowledge at School. , 1994 .

[51]  Robbie Case,et al.  Intellectual development : birth to adulthood , 1985 .

[52]  N. Mercer,et al.  From social interaction to individual reasoning: an empirical investigation of a possible socio-cultural model of cognitive development , 1999 .

[53]  S. Graham,et al.  Improving the writing performance, knowledge, and self-efficacy of struggling young writers: The effects of self-regulated strategy development , 2005 .

[54]  E. Michael Nussbaum,et al.  The effect of goal instructions and need for cognition on interactive argumentation , 2005 .

[55]  Arne Naess,et al.  Communication and argument : elements of applied semantics , 1968 .

[56]  A. Tversky,et al.  Extensional versus intuitive reasoning: the conjunction fallacy in probability judgment , 1983 .

[57]  Todd Lubart,et al.  Creating Creative Minds. , 1991 .

[58]  Joseph D. Novak,et al.  Learning How to Learn , 1984 .

[59]  G. Halford,et al.  Cognitive Science Questions for Cognitive Development: The Concepts of Learning, Analogy, and Capacity. , 1998 .

[60]  Abbie Brown,et al.  Design experiments: Theoretical and methodological challenges in creating complex interventions in c , 1992 .

[61]  Richard C. Anderson,et al.  Discourse Patterns During Children's Collaborative Online Discussions , 2007 .

[62]  Frans E. S. Tan,et al.  Best Practices in Analysis of Longitudinal Data: A Multilevel Approach , 2008 .

[63]  Robbie Case,et al.  The Role of Central Conceptual Structures in the Development of Children's Thought , 1995 .

[64]  F. H. Eemeren,et al.  Argumentation, Communication, and Fallacies: A Pragma-dialectical Perspective , 1992 .

[65]  J. Baron.  Thinking and Deciding , 2023 .

[66]  S. Jackson,et al.  Reconstructing Argumentative Discourse , 1993 .

[67]  R. Mayer.  Thinking, problem solving, cognition, 2nd ed. , 1992 .

[68]  E. Nussbaum,et al.  Promoting Argument-Counterargument Integration in Students' Writing , 2007 .

[69]  J. Neumann,et al.  Theory of games and economic behavior , 1945, 100 Years of Math Milestones.

[70]  S. Graham,et al.  Improving the Writing, Knowledge, and Motivation of Struggling Young Writers: Effects of Self-Regulated Strategy Development With and Without Peer Support , 2006 .

[71]  P. Suedfeld,et al.  Motivation and personality: Conceptual/integrative complexity , 1992 .

[72]  L. Vygotsky.  Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes: Harvard University Press , 1978 .

[73]  A. Agresti,et al.  Categorical Data Analysis , 1991, International Encyclopedia of Statistical Science.

[74]  S. D. L. Paz.  Effects of Historical Reasoning Instruction and Writing Strategy Mastery in Culturally and Academically Diverse Middle School Classrooms. , 2005 .

[75]  D. Walton,et al.  Practical Reasoning: Goal-Driven, Knowledge-Based, Action-Guiding Argumentation , 1991 .

[76]  S. Toulmin.  The uses of argument , 1960 .

[77]  Wayne Grennan,et al.  Informal Logic: Issues and Techniques , 1997 .