They use of concept mapping software for argument building in the language classroom: How

does it affect students' argumentative essay writing?

Chrystalla LymbouridouICT Advisor , Cyprus

The president of Zambia rejected the The president of Zambia rejected the help from the world food organization help from the world food organization because it mainly includes GM corn because it mainly includes GM corn

from the USA. from the USA. “My country is under starvation. “My country is under starvation.

However, I can not give my people However, I can not give my people poison…”poison…”

What would you do if you were in his place?

Socioscientific controversial issues Should we eat GMF? Is the use of mobile phones harmful? Should embryonic Stem Cell Research and

Transplants be Permitted? Controversial issues:

May have a basis in science The science cannot settle this subjects alone Several groups of the society hold several

views about the solution of such problems based on different value systems and interests.

Why teach argumentation in Language classrooms?

“We must recognise that teaching about citizenship necessarily involves discussing controversial issues. After all, open and informed debate is vital for a healthy democracy. This is not confined to citizenship however: controversial issues arise in other areas like History, Geography, Science, English, Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) or Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development (SMSC)”.

Crick Report,p.10

Why is it important?

In training the students to deal with expert statements and the evaluation of facts and knowledge claims, we aim at empowering the students as citizens.

Through such debates the students might learn to appreciate consensual science as more authoritative than disputed knowledge.

From a societal point of view it is important that decision-making is thoughtful (Aikenhead 1985). This means that decisions should be both knowledge-based and value-based. For a decision to be denoted as thoughtful the decision-making process should also include listening to the views of antagonists. Kostloe, 2000,p.651

Questions to ask about GMF

By what means do they help the agriculture and the production of more foods in order to feed the planet?-information

Are they dangerous for the human health?- information , science in the making

How can we know about it? What if something will be discovered some years later? What is

the risk? – risk assessment Are they harmful to the environment? If we find out that they do not affect our health but do affect

biodiversity what is our priorities? – sustainable development –ethics and values

Can a president decide about his people when it comes about their own lives? – ethics and values

We they give GMF that are rejected from Europe as a help to such countries? – value systems – interests

….

Students’ ability to create arguments Prior beliefs seriously influence the way that students

response to data. When presented with contradictory evidence students usually distort the evidence to adjust to their prior beliefs without being aware of doing so. (Sodian et al , 1991, p.759, Shepardson 1999, p.91, Bell 1995, p.13).

Apart from distorting the evidence, students are found to ignore data that they ought to consider when evaluating claims or assimilate such data in ways that do not damage their current theories(Sandoval 2001, p.1, Chinn and Brewer, 1998, Klahr et al, 1990; Kuhn et al., 1998).

Students usually use only positive positions in order to support a claim and very rare use counterarguments or present different points of view on the same issue. (Driver et al., 2000, p.304)

Argumentative writing Writing an argumentative text is a difficult task. Previous studies which

investigated the argumentative skills of secondary schools students ascribe the difficulties to lack of specific education, which would help students to disentangle the complexity of argumentation (van Eemeren, Grootendorst and Hankemans, 1996).

Formal education does not offer the student the opportunities to develop experience in defending a position (Oostdam and Emmelot, 1991; Oostdam, de Glopper, Eiting, 1994). Research findings indicate that although students can invent arguments or even identify them among resources, they are not as good in “synthesising” them into a coherent text (Oostdam, de Glopper, Eiting, 1994).

It is often seen that students develop arguments separately and omit to relate each argument to a high-level structure or one standpoint (Keith, Weiner & Lesgold, 1991). Problems with refutation have also been reported. In most cases, students take up an argument against the formulated standpoint and then they reject it without justification.

As cited in Chryssafidou, 2001

Research Teaching intervention which would

promote collaborative exchange and discrimination of ideas among students

give available and contradictory evidence about a subject , and

“made things ‘visible’ – allow graphical representation of arguments (Bell, 1997)

would help students improve the structure of their argumentative essays.

Methodology Sample: 22 5th graders of primary school (age 10-

11) Subject: Genetically modified food Teaching intervention

Setting the problem Explore the information Role play debate 1st drafting – What would you do if you where the

president of Zambia? Scaffolding argument building with the help of Reason!

Able 2nd drafting- argumentative essay

Reason!Able Reason!Able is a software package for PCs . It enhances

the building of simple diagrams of complex reasoning, so that the building blocks of an argument can be identified very easily. (http://www.goreason.com/).

The tool was selected as appropriate for our teaching interventions because it enables students both build and evaluate arguments.

Reasonable! environment, prompts for arguments and counterarguments in order to reach a final claim, thus helping students present thesis other than their own as well, and also provides opportunity for creating multireasoned as well as multileveled arguments.

Analyzing data Convert text to diagrams

“I would not accept genetically modified food for my country because even if there is evidence that they can help preventing cancer, they may cause many other heath problems. In addition, we do not know if they are safe for our health. Research says that GMF can cause AIDS and can affect woman’s fertility. Even if they say that the crops can be easier planted and we have more crops with this method, there is a great environmental danger: When you plan a GM plant the other plants that are near to it may become genetically modified also. As a result, the crops will be contaminated, people will not have food to eat and they will be destroyed too…(student 20)

Setting criteria for arguments evaluation The number of arguments that they use

to support their final claim (both reasons and objections)

The existence of counterarguments (objections)

The number of levels that their argument had.

Results Number of arguments- no new information

presented

Existence of counterarguments

Existence of counterarguments

Paired Samples Test

-2.667 1.111 .242 -3.172 -2.161 -11.004 20 .000Coutner to the mainBefore - Counter tothe main After

Pair1

Mean Std. DeviationStd. Error

Mean Lower Upper

95% ConfidenceInterval of the

Difference

Paired Differences

t df Sig. (2-tailed)

0.52 3.57

Number of levels

Paired Samples Test

-.857 .964 .210 -1.296 -.419 -4.076 20 .001Levels Before- Leverls After

Pair1

Mean Std. DeviationStd. Error

Mean Lower Upper

95% ConfidenceInterval of the

Difference

Paired Differences

t df Sig. (2-tailed)

1

2

32

3

4

Students´ ability to construct scientific arguments can be improved The improvement of the structure of the argument does not

necessarily improves the quality of argumentative text. Students in some cases just cited more information but found it difficult to write a coherent text. This research does not refer to the quality of the argumentative essay as a whole but to the structure of it.

Students have difficulties to criticize information. They just cite it to support their argument. 90% of the students that were against GMF cited that they are responsible for AIDS and that they affect woman’s fertility. This was cited in the text as a “myth”

We need classrooms organized as “knowledge building communities”

We need teachers able to handle these type of discussion in the classroom

We have to integrate tools like ReasonAble! In the curriculum Cross curricular activities could help so that different domains

contribute (science: what about the experiments, which is the available data , health education: which of the food we eat include GMF)

References Bell, P. (1995) How Far Does Light Go? :Individual and Collaborative Sense- Making of Scientific

Evidence, Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, CA: AERA.

Bell, P. (1997). Using argument representations to make thinking visible for individuals and groups, In R. Hall, N. Miyake & N. Enyedy (Eds.), Proceedings of CSCL ‘ 97:The Second International Conference on Computer Support for Collaborative Learning (pp.10-19) Toronto: University of Toronto Press

Chryssafidou, E (2000) DIALECTIC: Enhancing essay writing skills with computersupported formulation of argumentation, In C. Stephanidis (Ed.),Proceedings of the ERCIMWG UI4ALL one-day

joint workshop with i3 Spring Days 2000 on "Interactive Learning Environments for Children", Athens, Greece, 3 March (14 pages).

Driver, R. , Newton, P. and Osborne, J.(2000) Establishing the Norms of Scientific Argumentation in Classrooms Science Education , vol84,no.3 pp.287- 312

Duschl, R., Ellenbogen, K. & Erduran, S. (1999).Promoting Argumentation in Middle School Science Classrooms: A Project SEPIA Evaluation, Paper presented at the NARST 1999 Conference

DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT/QUALIFICATIONS AND CURRICULUM AUTHORITY (1998). Education for Citizenship and the Teaching of Democracy in Schools. Final report of the Advisory Group on Citizenship, The Crick Report (London: DfEE/QCA).

Leach, J. (1999), Students’ understanding of the co-ordination of theory and evidence in science, International Journal of Science Education, vol.21, no.8, pp.789-806

Sandoval, W. A. (2001) . Students’ uses of data as evidence in scientific explanations., Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. Seattle, WA, April 10-14

Zuzovksy, R., and Tamir, P.(1999), Growth patterns in student’s ability to supply scientific explanations: findings from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study in Israel, International Journal of Science Education, vol.21, no.10,pp.1101-1121