Abstract
We describe a systematic process of developing measures of argument production and comprehension. These measures, designed for students in upper-elementary language arts classrooms, are called Writing Argument and Reading Argument. We discuss the rationale and theoretical framework for the measures, describe pilot and validation studies, and present initial findings to support the reliability, validity, and usability of these measures. Our results showed that both measures had acceptable inter-rater reliability. The correlations among Writing Argument, Reading Argument and an established reading comprehension test were moderate, which highlights the importance of task-specific competencies. The performance on both measures was not associated with ethnicity of the students. Gender was a significant predictor, with girls performing better than boys. Teachers found both measures to be pedagogically useful. Although some teachers initially struggled with learning how to use the scoring rubrics, they generally found the scoring for both tasks to be informative for their practice.
Highlights
Helping students develop the ability to formulate and comprehend arguments is increasingly seen as one of the key purposes of schooling (Kuhn, Hemberger, & Khait, 2016; Lipman, 2003; Newell, Beach, Smith, VanDerHeide, Kuhn, & Andriessen, 2011)
The Common Core Standards initiative in the US (National Governors Association, 2010, p. 25) stresses the importance of writing and reading arguments across the curriculum, and considers argumentation to be “broadly important for the literate, educated person living in the diverse, information-rich environment of the twenty-first century”
We describe a systematic process aimed at developing and validating measures of argumentation, called Writing Argument and Reading Argument
Summary
Helping students develop the ability to formulate and comprehend arguments is increasingly seen as one of the key purposes of schooling (Kuhn, Hemberger, & Khait, 2016; Lipman, 2003; Newell, Beach, Smith, VanDerHeide, Kuhn, & Andriessen, 2011) This position is reflected in major national and international educational policy documents (e.g., National Governors Association, 2010; Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2012). Published, standardized tests of argumentation skills and related abilities (e.g., reasoning and critical thinking) often lack sufficient validity evidence and are rarely designed for elementary school students (Hughes, 1992; Poteet, 1989; Sutton, 1992) This is regrettable, considering that elementary-age children are developmentally poised to engage in argumentation and can improve their skills through such engagement (Mercer, 2011; Reznitskaya, Anderson, Dong, Li, Kim, & Kim, 2008; Stein & Trabasso, 1982). Lack of quality measures for younger students is problematic given that major policy documents describe argumentation skills as an intended educational outcome for students from the early grades
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