Argumentation Process Research Articles

Scottish Gaelic Movement and Celtic Identity: An Comunn Gaidhealach at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

An Comunn Gaidhealach, as the main representative of the Scottish Gaelic Movement in the late nineteenth century, pursued the essential objectives of cultivating, teaching, and promoting Gaelic language, literature, music, and culture. Its members closely collaborated with their counterparts from other so-called Celtic countries, which subsequently resulted in the formation of other pan-Celtic institutions around 1900. The countries involved supported each other in achieving similar goals through common initiatives. This article explores the nature of Celtic connections through the study of the self-representation of the Gaelic language movement. It defines the most articulated topics for An Comunn Gaidhealach and identifies to what extent Celticism was part of the society’s self-representation. An Comunn Gaidhealach looked at the experience of other Celtic countries as a source of inspiration. While Celtic identity formed a negligible part of An Comunn Gaidhealach’s self-representation, a strong Celtic element was present in its discursive strategies and in the argumentation processes, both inspired by Welsh and Irish revivalist movements. The society defended Gaelic language rights, presented itself as a patron to Gaelic education, and organised the Mòd festival, all the while embracing all political and religious beliefs. The methodology of the research, inspired by Israeli sociologist Ruth Amossy, analyzes the discourse of An Deo-Gréine, the official magazine of An Comunn Gaidhealach. This perspective highlights how An Comunn Gaidhealach intended to be perceived, what discursive strategies it employed, and subsequently, how and to what extent there was a pan-Celtic aspect to its work. The results of the analysis are complemented by archival research. The conceptual framework of the study is embedded in comparative and transnational approaches to historical research. This approach is reflected in understanding the formation of collective identities from a perspective that transcends nation-states rather than focusing solely on a national context.

Teoria da Argumentação para a concepção do Direito como integridade de Dworkin: Uma impossibilidade?

The article aims to verify the possibility of an argumentation theory within the framework of Ronald Dworkin’s theory of Law as Integrity. The research is based on a literature re-view based on the analysis of the epistemological contradiction between the current theories of legal argumentation and the theory of Law as Integrity, based on Hans-Georg Gadamer and Ronald Dworkin. We conclude that, despite this contradiction, a theory of argu-mentation is possible within Dworkin’s theory, as long as the logic of developing a previous and methodical path to reach a metaphysical truth is overcome. Without illusions or relativism, we propose the acceptance of Law as Integrity, founded on hermeneutic bases, as an alternative for the strengthening of an argumentative process within the scope of a Democratic State of Law.

The Representation of Argumentative Discourse in Doha Debates

The study aims to analyze the argumentative process contained in the YouTube Channel Doha Debate with the title “Gender Equality (Full Debate) Doha debates presenting three spokespersons by using five principles based on Damer’s theory. The method used in this study is qualitative descriptive. Data has been collected in the analysis by way of presenting, describing, and interpreting data. Research results show that there are twelve data in in this study, such as structural principle (twelve data), relevance (ten data), acceptability (one Data), sufficiency (six data), and rebuttal principle (four data). The researcher found that the structural principle is most dominantly used in the argument because there is a claim from the speaker’s argument to strengthen the speaker’s statement so that it can be accepted by the audience, relevance of reasons that are directly related to the claim, acceptability of the audience's opinion regarding the speakers’ argument, sufficiency provides evidence to strengthen the argument, and rebuttal principle which is the speaker's criticism of the argument presented by the opponent. Therefore, this concluded that the most consistent during the debate was Randa saying that quotas can help gender equality while Christina said that quotas cannot work and only harm because there is no evidence that gender quotas can help equality.

Functional Literacy in the System of Adult Education

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The scientific aim of the article is to improve understanding of func- tional literacy (illiteracy) phenomenon and its role in adult learning system, pedagogical and socio-economic approaches to this concept.
 THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: The research problem is included in the questions: What are the essence, definition and constituents of functional literacy? What are pedagogical principles and techniques of functional literacy training for adults? The author uses the method of theoretical analysis of scientific works, some documents and UNESCO reports on the issues, and comparison of certain research views.
 THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: The article starts with investigation of functional literacy in historical and contemporary dimensions, the reasons for development of the phenomenon in the world. Then we focus on various concepts and approaches to the functional literacy through the time. The next is comparison of scholars’ research on the components of functional literacy; and then we study the principles and methods, peculiarities of functional literacy training in adult education.
 RESEARCH RESULTS: The research has revealed that functional literacy is a complex of social necessary knowledge and skills allowing a person to participate effectively in social process. Its constituent elements are basic, information, economic, political, cultural literacy, and many others depending on community level. Functional literacy concept and training are connected with the priorities of economic and social development. The constant interest by national and international organizations for maintaining functional literacy is explained in the work.
 CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: The conclusion emphasizes the importance of functional literacy for development and well-being of individual and societal progress in the community. The need for working out and implementation of specific principles, teaching materials and techniques for functional literacy training in adult learning is highlighted.

Perception of Oneself as a Teacher from the Perspective of Individuals Retraining for the New Profession

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this article is to identify and describe the self-perceptions of those retraining and preparing for the teaching profession.
 THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: The research problem was formulated as follows: how do postgraduate students who are retraining to become teachers perceive themselves as future teachers? Data were obtained from postgraduate students who wrote essays on Why did I choose to study teacher training and what kind of teacher would I like to be? The method of qualitative text analysis was used to analyze the essays, which were treated as secondary data.
 THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: The first part of the article focuses on the importance of positive self-image and self-concept in motivation for development, as they strengthen self-esteem, and translate it into attitudes and inner containment. In the empirical section, based on Leary’s concept, three main categories were identified.
 RESEARCH RESULTS: The analysis shows that the respondents’ project of themselves in the professional role of a teacher is declarative only. The categories and qualities that the respondents mentioned refer both to their negative (by contrast) and positive school experiences. Positive self-perception through the characteristics described, experiences of working in other professions and passions all motivate positive work on oneself and are a condition for becoming a teacher.
 CONCLUSION, INNOVATIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS: In the final conclusions, a proposal was made for a new way of recruiting and temporary qualification for the teaching profession. Attention was paid to strengthening intrinsic motivation to work on one’s development as a prerequisite for preparing for work and becoming a teacher.

The Issue of the Educational Presence of Teachers at School

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The objective of the article was to justify the necessity of high-quality pedagogical interactions in school according to teachers and students.
 THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: The following issue was analyzed: what are the procedures shaping the pedagogical presence of teachers at school? Analytical method and critical review were used as the source materials are the basis for research.
 THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: The article outlined the role of three categories (relation, pedagogical tact, meeting) in the construction of teachers’ pedagogical presence.
 RESEARCH RESULTS: Teachers’ pedagogical presence must consist of teachers’ interest in the causes of children and youth problems. This is proprietary conceptualization.
 CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS, REKOMMENDATIONS: The undertaken issue requires additional theoretical analysis and formulation of empirical studies structure.

The Role of Passion Combined with the Mission to Protect Humanity Reflected in the Memoirs of Ludwik Hirszfeld

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The aim of the analysis is to illustrate the importance of Ludwig Hirszfeld’s scientific and research passion combined with his mission to protect humanity. The topic is explored in a specific historical context, which has educational value.
 THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: The central problem of this study is the question of what is the significance of an individual who, despite the most difficult experiences, is able to overcome fear and act to protect the dignity of people subjected to dehumanization. The research methodology used was memory studies.
 THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: The article discusses facts, mainly related to the time of World War II, including selected contexts from the biography of Ludwig Hirszfeld, who took on the mission of conquering hatred and contempt towards the victims of the German Nazis.
 RESEARCH RESULTS: History education, along with learning about the memories of Holocaust victims, helps younger generations understand the importance of the mission to protect those at risk of losing their human rights.
 CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: Learning about those who opposed the German Nazis, and others who defended the dignity of every human being should be a subject of education for young people. This knowledge can make younger generations aware of the important role individuals can play in protecting life, which is the highest value.

Psychometric Properties of the Polish Version of the Passion Scale

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The aim of the article is to present the Polish adaptation of the Vallerand’s Passion Scale.
 THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: Does the scale have a two-factore structure in accordance with the theoretical model and the original version? Is the theoretical validity satisfactory? Is the reliability of the scale satisfactory?
 THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: The validation included back translation, estimating reliability and theoretical validity.
 RESEARCH RESULTS: Exploratory factor analysis revealed the dual model of the passion, indicating the existence of harmonious and obsessive passion. The results of the confirmatory analysis are also discussed. The Scale has a good reliability of the subscales. The theoretical validity of the Scale was verified by correlations between types of passion and identity interest and flow.
 CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: The results of validation are satisfactory and the Polish version of the Scale can be applied in scientific research.

Experiencing Passion as an “essentia vitae” of Educational Biographies of Eminent Musicians From Cracow

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The aim of the paper was to discuss a function of passion in professional personal lives of eminent Cracow musicians.
 THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: The paper raises the problem of the role of passion in the process of shaping musical eminence, answers the question of the scope of experiencing it as well as it manifesting in activities of outstanding individuals. In conducted research and interpretations, the qualitative perspective and biographical method were applied. The leading technique was problem-concentrated qualitative interview, partially structured, carried out with ten eminent instrumentalists.
 THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: The theoretical basis for this reading of the experience of educational biographies was provided by the Model of Authentic Vocation of J. Weller and the Dualistic Model of Passion of A. Bonneville-Roussy, G. Lavigne and R. Vallerand. The interpretations of the research material described the topography of experiencing passion.
 RESEARCH RESULTS: The article describes autonomous passion associated with musical mastery, instrumental motivation to practice, as well as distinguishes important factors that determine the experience of passion, persistence or burnout (tenacity, ambition, community transfer, conflict of motives, work overload), and concretizes the qualities of musical passion of outstanding musicians: professionalization, love of music, integrity, creativity, strength and determination in pursuit of goals, as well as humility in the face of challenges.
 CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: Deciphering the senses and meanings that prominent Cracow musicians attributed to passion suggests that it was autonomous, harmonious and instrumental, motivated by the pursuit of mastery, and that the trajectories of the musicians’ professional biographies were a manifestation of a “professionalization of passion,” which formed the core of their educational experience and constituted and defined their life creed.

The Comparative Advantage and the Knowledge-Based Economy. Experiences from Polish-Chinese trade

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to identify trade patterns between Poland and China in the context of the theory of comparative advantage and the knowledge-based economy.
 THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: The central question was to answer whether Poland has strengthened its competitive advantage in any product categories through recorded increases in normalized revealed comparative advantage (NRCA), using the modified indicator version. The approach of the above analysis enabled the conducted research to assess whether Poland’s trade with China, especially those in the field of high-technology, were carried out in accordance with the theory of comparative advantage, during the analyzed decade (2013 - 2022).
 THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: In the first stage, a review of the literature on foreign trade was carried out. This was important as it sheds light on the issues of comparative advantage, with a particular emphasis on its links with the knowledge-based economy. Then, the main characteristics of Polish-Chinese trade were analysed and presented together with their results in order to identify areas of comparative advantages using the NRCA index.
 RESEARCH RESULTS: Poland-China trade reveals gradual change and this is evidenced by changes in the NRCA index, which is in line with changes in the export structure of both countries. However, in the case of Poland, the nature and direction of these advantages is – although slowly changing - towards those appropriate for more knowledge-based economies.
 CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS: Further strengthening comparative advantages in the field of high-tech.

War and Peace Journalism in Mass Shootings Coverage - Case Study of a School Shooting in the U.S. Uvalde

Research objective: Analysis of the problem of using the theory of war and peace journalism in reporting mass shootings in the American media on the example of a school shooting in Uvalde. 
 Problem and methods: The article answers the question whether theories about war and peace journalism can be helpful in the analysis of media coverage of mass shootings. The text analyzes how the leading media broadcasters in the U.S. (CNN and Fox News) use war- and peace-oriented mechanisms. The article uses research methods standard for social sciences and humanities, including content analysis with elements of framing analysis, comparative analysis and the case study. 
 Process of argumentation: The starting point for the research was the theories on war and peace journalism by Johan Galtung. The reason for undertaking the research was also the record number of mass shootings in the U.S. in 2021 and the significant importance of the Uvalde shooting in the American public debate on gun control in 2022. The article focuses on the first week of coverage of the shooting. 
 Results: American media use war journalism more often. Coverage is influenced by ideological profile and political affiliation. Political issues and the reconstruction of events come to the fore. Contexts such as victims, solutions, roots of the problem or fate of the perpetrator are discussed less frequently. The shooting in Uvalde became an instrument in the political conflict in which the media took part. 
 Conclusions, innovations, and recommendations: War journalism mechanisms favor media polarization in bipartisan conflict conditions and help show sensational events in a 24-hour cycle. In turn, the mechanisms of peace journalism support reporting on the perpetrator, victims and potential solutions. The article intends to increase awareness of various ways of publicizing extraordinary events and political conflicts and serve for more profound research in the future.

The Relationship Between the Harmonious Passion Development and the Human Integral Development: Educational Perspective in Brief

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The scientific aim of the article is to learn the relationship between the integral human development and the development of harmonious passion (HP) and the human integral development and upbringing.
 THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: The research problem of the conducted research is contained in the question: What is the relationship between harmonious passion with the integral development of the educational entity. Answering this question enables the use of the hermeneutic method exploring the meaning of this phenomenological relationship.
 THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: The research process is epistemological in nature. It refers to the dualistic model of passion, particularly to the harmonious passion, and the integral human development. Noticing the correlation between the above-mentioned aspects can be a significant challenge for the teachers and students with their passionate attitude, discovering and forming their own identity.
 RESEARCH RESULTS: The analysis of the collected material indicated the importance of the development of a harmonious passion for the integral development of educational entities in the space of biological, psychological, social, cultural and spiritual life, and the formation of an autonomous identity.
 CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS: Theoretical research in the abovementioned area can draw the educators’ attention to the harmonious passion seen in a multidimensional perspective, reflected in the educational activity, what needs revising and updating educational programs that stimulate the actualization of creative potential of educational entities. This can be used to get to know oneself, others and the world more deeply on the path of autonomous self-becoming.

New Paths to Enlighten Passion for Education in Challenging Times: DigiSEL and Creative Education

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: This article examines teachers’ attitudes towards socioemotional learning (SEL) and digital technology in the post-pandemic era, focusing on the DigiSEL project. This project aimed to integrate digital tools and SEL to support students’ well-being and academic success, enhancing primary school teachers’ skills in these areas.
 THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: The study involved partner countries conducting qualitative and quantitative analyses to determine the needs of in-service and preservice teachers. The Italian team’s needs analysis, conducted through a Focus Group and a creativity survey, revealed insights into teachers’ attitudes and experiences with digital teaching and creativity skills development.
 THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: The authors introduce the DigiSEL project, detailing how it aligned with their research for the online course modules.
 RESEARCH RESULTS: The Italian team’s focus group outcomes highlighted innovative solutions for educational challenges. Initial frustration with technology evolved into a rewarding transformation as educators mastered its use. Online courses were identified as motivating and providing novel approaches to address students’ diverse issues, such as concentration and emotional expression difficulties.
 CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: Despite challenges, the project effectively supported educators in their roles and maintained their enthusiasm for teaching. Drawing inspiration from earlier European research on creativity and ICT in teaching, this study aligned with teachers’ perceptions of creativity as vital for students’ development and demonstrated how technology could enhance teaching methods. In conclusion, the DigiSEL project showcased the potential of merging SEL and digital tools to empower educators and foster student growth amidst evolving educational landscapes. More research should take in consideration the importance of SEL and creativity to enlighten passion in teaching with new and inspiring methods.

Investigation of university students’ critical thinking in debate: Justification for the “AREL” argumentation process

This qualitative research investigated students’ critical thinking in a debate group at a university level. It involved six students who performed a debate that used the Asian Parliamentary System. Data on students’ critical thinking were collected by using field notes and video recording. Content analysis was employed to analyze the data focusing on the use of argument traits of the AREL model. The traits consist of Assertian, Reasoning, Evidence, and Link Back (AREL). Moreover, a self-evaluation questionnaire was distributed to triangulate the students’ critical thinking levels. It was found that students’ critical thinking level was mostly below average. Four out of six students did not meet the score which is the threshold level of a high-level debater. Most of their argument traits consist of Assertion (A), Reasoning (R), and Evidence (E), leaving Link back (L) traits untouched. Interestingly, this research revealed a new finding. Many of the students used a multi-layer structure of argumentation. In practice, they occasionally used Assertions with more than one Reasoning and more than one Evidence.
 Keywords: AREL, argumentation process, argument trait, critical thinking, speaking, debate

What does it mean to “grasp the rectangle”? Organization of linguistic formulation and activation of argumentative processes in geometrical problems

The purpose of this paper is to explore whether and how the verbal formulation of a task influences the activation of argumentative processes in a geometrical word problem involving figural concepts. The study adopts a multilevel explanatory mixed methods research design. Both the quantitative and qualitative experiments were based on a paradigmatic situation of figural concept proposed by Fischbein. Our main quantitative result is that different formulations of a task impact on students’ performance and on the selection of an argumentative or operational option. Moreover, we qualitatively investigated the students’ approaches, and this allowed to observe a variety of approaches ranging from a completely operational one to an argumentative one. The analysis highlighted interesting facts about the integration of sentential information and diagrams and the students’ strategies.

A pedagogical reflection on the interplay between variation and invariant: Variational thinking

This commentary paper is a pedagogical reflection on the interplay between variation and invariant. It begins with a brief discussion on the concept of Unity of Opposites as an ancient philosophical theme. Ancient thinking systems regarded the variation and invariant pair as a Unity of Opposites. Next, the use of variation as a pedagogical approach in mathematics education is briefly examined under Marton's variational theory of learning, Gu's bianshi jiaoxue, and the related research done by the author in the context of Dynamic Geometry Environment (DGE). These lead to the formation of the concept of variational thinking, the main contribution of this paper, which is presented and explained. A DGE task design sequence example is presented to illustrate how variational thinking can be used to frame a process of geometrical reasoning and argumentation.

Biased Processing and Opinion Polarization: Experimental Refinement of Argument CommunicationTheory in the Context of the Energy Debate

We combine empirical experimental research on biased argument processing with a computational theory of group deliberation to overcome the micro–macro problem of sociology and to clarify the role of biased processing in debates around energy. We integrate biased processing into the framework of argument communication theory in which agents exchange arguments about a certain topic and adapt opinions accordingly. Our derived mathematical model fits significantly better to the experimentally observed attitude changes than the neutral argument processing assumption made in previous models. Our approach provides new insight into the relationship between biased processing and opinion polarization. Our analysis reveals a sharp qualitative transition from attitude moderation to polarization at the individual level. At the collective level, we find that weak biased processing significantly accelerates group decision processes, whereas strong biased processing leads to a meta-stable conflictual state of bi-polarization that becomes persistent as the bias increases.

Global information-aware argument mining based on a top-down multi-turn QA model

Argument mining (AM) aims to automatically generate a graph that represents the argument structure of a document. Most previous AM models only pay attention to a single argument component (AC) to classify the type of the AC or a pair of ACs to identify and classify the argumentative relation (AR) between the two ACs. These models ignore the impact of global argument structure of the documents, which is important, especially in some highly structured genres such as scientific papers, where the process of argumentation is relatively fixed. Inspired by this, we propose a novel two-stage model which leverages global structure information to support AM. The first stage uses a multi-turn question-answering model to incrementally generate an initial argumentative graph that identifies relations among ACs. At each turn, all ACs related to the query AC are generated simultaneously, such that the sibling global information between the answer ACs is considered. In addition, the partially constructed graph is used as global structure information to support the extension of the graph with additional ACs. After the whole initial graph structure has been determined, the second stage assigns semantic types to both the ACs and ARs among them, leveraging information from this initial graph as global structure information. We test the proposed methods on two scientific datasets (one is the AbstRCT dataset including 659 abstracts about cancer research and the other is the SciARG dataset that consists of 225 computer linguistic abstracts and 285 biomedical abstracts) and a student essay dataset PE with 402 essays. Our experiments show that our model improves the state-of-the-art performance on two scientific datasets for different AM subtasks, with average improvements of 1%, 2.41%, 1.1% for the ACC, ARI and ARC task respectively on the AbstRCT dataset, and 2.36%, 1.84%, 8.87% for the ACC, ARI and ARC task on the SciARG dataset. Our model also achieves comparative results on the PE datasets: 87.7% of F1 scores for the ACC task, 81.4% for the ARI task and 78.8% for the ARC task.

Domestic abuse and child contact in Scotland: the perspectives of family law practitioners

ABSTRACT It is now well-established that children are adversely affected by domestic abuse, and that domestic abuse does not always cease following parental separation. However, the issue of post-separation child contact in the context of domestic abuse remains contentious, with some commentators arguing that contact may not always be in the ‘best interests’ of the child. In Scotland, the nature and extent of child contact applications remain under-researched, and little is known about the processes of argument and adjudication in contact decisions. This article draws on a survey of family law practitioners in Scotland undertaken to examine how, if at all, developments in domestic abuse proceedings and changing definitions in the context of criminal law in Scotland, inform the handling of child contact cases in the civil courts. The findings reveal that, whilst most respondents were of the view that information about domestic abuse strengthens the position of the party against child contact, there is a clear absence of systematic ways to gather and make available information about domestic abuse where it has occurred (or is still occurring) in cases involving child contact. The practice and policy implications of this for determining the ‘best interests’ of the child are discussed.

How argumentation relates to formal proof process in geometry

This study aims to examine how being involved in an argumentation process relates to the formal proof process in geometry. Prospective mathematics teachers were involved in an argumentation process while producing conjectures before engaging in formal proof of the recently produced conjectures. To collect data, four geometry-proof tasks that involve two sections were employed. The first section of the tasks demands the production of conjectures, which stands for the term argumentation. The second section asks for the formal proof of one of the recently produced conjectures. Based on the data analysis, the affordances of being involved in argumentation before engaging in the formal proof process were listed as positive affective occasions, arrangement of knowledge related to the content of the task, visual aspect, and the veracity of the statement. Negative affective occasions and confusion related to the difference between conjecturing and proving were coded as constraints of being involved in argumentation before formal proof.