Constructed dialogs reveal skill development in argumentive writing
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Constructed dialogs reveal skill development in argumentive writing Yuchen Shi1
© Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract This study investigates the possibility that solitary dialog, in which individuals construct in writing a hypothetical dialogic argument, may more fully reveal individual skill achievement in argument than do conventional argumentive essays. A sample of 54 11–12-year-old Chinese students individually composed such written dialogs, subsequent to their participation in a 4-month dialog-based argument curriculum that previously reported gains in both dialogic and essay assessments. Also partaking in the constructed dialog task reported on here were two non-intervention control groups from the same school; one the same age (n = 50) as and the other 2 years older (n = 52) than the intervention group. As well as outperforming their agemates, the intervention group’s performance on the constructed dialog task showed they had achieved skill equal to that of the older group in counterargument and were superior to them in using evidence to justify claims. The possibility is considered that the my-side bias reported in typical argumentive essays is due to limited understanding of the purpose of essay writing, rather than lack of skills per se. Keywords Argument · China · Dialog · Evidence · Writing Theory and research on individual and dialogic argument in educational settings have expanded considerably in recent decades, and diverse approaches to fostering students’ argument skills have been proposed and extensively debated (for review see Asterhan & Schwarz, 2016; Nussbaum, 2008; Rapanta, Garcia-Mila, & Gilabert, 2013). Given the foundational role of argumentation in higher-order thinking (Kuhn, 1991; Mercier & Sperber, 2011; Moshman, 2011) and learning (Andriessen, Baker, & Suthers, 2003; Asterhan & Schwarz, 2016;), researchers and practitioners have made increasing efforts to foster students’ argument skills (e.g., Alexander, 2018; Asterhan & Schwarz, 2007, 2010; Duschl & Osborne, 2002; Marttunen & Laurinen, * Yuchen Shi [email protected] 1
Institute of Curriculum and Instruction, Faculty of Education, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
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2001; Nussbaum & Schraw, 2007; Sampson & Clark, 2008; Sandoval, Enyedy, Redman, & Xiao, 2019). Employing the dialog-based argument curriculum developed by Kuhn and colleagues (Kuhn, Hemberger, & Khait, 2016a), the present study was part of a research project that engaged a group of Chinese middle-school students in extensive peerto-peer electronic and verbal discourse on contemporary social issues (Kuhn, Feliciano, & Kostikina, 2019) to promote both individual and dialogic argument skills. Results of the present intervention on promoting skills in argumentive writing, both on intervention topics and a transfer one, were reported in Shi (2019). Here, we report on an additional measure that asks the student to individually and hypothetically construct a written dialog between two expert arguers (Kuhn, Zillmer, Crowell, &
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