Construction Of Arguments Research Articles

Distributed Scaffolding: Synergy in Technology-Enhanced Learning Environments

When technology is employed challenges increase in learning environments. Kim et al. (Sci Educ 91(6):1010–1030, 2007) presented a pedagogical framework that provides a valid technology-enhanced learning environment. The purpose of the present design-based study was to investigate the micro context dimension of this framework and to analyze interactions between the student and tool, teacher and student, and teacher and tool. In this respect, to understand how the roles of the teacher and technology tool are balanced in a technology-enhanced learning environment, the distribution of scaffolds between teacher and the tool were analyzed. Forty-one middle-school students attending an international school in Turkey were scaffolded with technology-based scaffolding treatments in two groups supervised by two teachers. Qualitative analysis was conducted. The results showed that the students benefited from the use of hints, sentence starters and question prompts, which led the students to develop their ability to construct arguments with a claim, ground, backing, warrants, and in some cases, more sophisticated arguments using rebuttals as in the Toulmin argumentation pattern (Toulmin 2003). The results of the study also showed that technology-based scaffolds, which are provided with active support by the teacher, create a more effective environment, and students need multiple forms of support and multiple learning opportunities to learn science successfully in the dynamic and complex environment of the classroom. Since there is a strong interaction and balance between teacher support and the technology scaffolds, there is also a synergetic relationship that promotes student learning and improves the student’s ability to construct arguments.

Gramática Moral Universal: controvérsias a respeito da analogia linguística

http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/1808-1711.2016v20n2p255 The aim of this paper is to confront the main arguments employed by advocates of Universal Moral Grammar (UMG) with the results obtained in empirical studies from different fields of cognitive science and also with constructivist arguments proposed by Prinz and Sterelny, among others. From this analysis, I conclude that the Poverty of the Stimulus Argument is unconvincing when applied to the field of morality. The research with the trolley problems, often used to support the existence of UMG, is also insufficient to sustain the thesis that morality works similarly to language, especially when the existence of simpler explanations is considered. Furthermore, in spite of the universality of morality, the unlimited variation in moral norms across groups is a serious problem for any account relying on the principles and parameters model of the linguistic analogy.

Hume Philosophical-Policy and the International Law of Nuclear Weapons

The goal of philosophical method is the construction of a comprehensive policy argument (CPA) for a public policy or legal issue. In addition to the conventional use of empirical models and their logic of investigation in the study of policy and law, CPA requires that an underlying philosophical logic of concepts be deciphered in terms of the ideas within the issue, their definition, overlap and systematic interdependence. In this working paper, I will employ a logic of concepts from David Hume’s Philosophical-Policy to provide a unique and more complete logic of legal investigation for the illumination of the ICJ Advisory Opinion On The Legality of Nuclear Weapons.

A Developmental Approach to the Use of Critical Thinking Skills in Writing: The Case of Moroccan EFL University Students

Training students to think critically is one of the most serious challenges that face Moroccan higher education, with experts being in unanimous agreement that critical thinking should be part of any instructional practice. In actual fact, a number of studies have come to the conclusion that students who have the ability to provide a critical assessment of the knowledge and information they receive — be they inside or outside of the classroom — can become critical thinking individuals, successful professionals, and, in the long run, active citizens. Given the importance of critical thinking in EFL teaching, the present paper purports to investigate the extent to which academic level affects the development of critical thinking skills among Moroccan EFL learners. In order to come up with a developmental account of critical thinking among these learners, two tests were administered to 60 students that were divided into three groups of 20 students. The first test, the Ennis-Weir Critical Thinking Essay Test, targeted argument evaluation skills, while the second test, argumentative essay writing, targeted argument construction skills. The results have been quantitatively analyzed so as to (i) provide tentative understanding of the current state of critical thinking in Moroccan higher education in general and among Moroccan EFL students in particular, and (ii) examine the influence that academic level and language proficiency have on the progress of critical thinking. The analysis will help us draw implications for EFL teaching methods and curriculum development in Moroccan higher education. Suggestions are made with regard to the integration of critical thinking in EFL instruction.

Alternating argument constructions of Dutch psychological verbs: A theory-driven corpus investigation

AbstractThis article presents the results of a corpus study of the Dutch psychological verbs

アーギュメントの構成能力と評価能力を育成する小学校教師教育プログラムの開発

アーギュメントの構成能力と評価能力を育成する小学校教師教育プログラムの開発

Can ‘Philosophy for Children’ Improve Primary School Attainment?

There are tensions within formal education between imparting knowledge and the development of skills for handling that knowledge. In the primary school sector, the latter can also be squeezed out of the curriculum by a focus on basic skills such as literacy and numeracy. What happens when an explicit attempt is made to develop young children's reasoning—both in terms of their apparent cognitive abilities and their basic skills? This paper reports an independent evaluation of an in-class intervention called ‘Philosophy for Children’ (P4C), after just over one year of schooling. The intervention aims to help children become more willing and able to question, reason, construct arguments and collaborate with others. A group of 48 volunteer schools were randomised to receive P4C (22 schools) or act as a control for one year (26). This paper reports the CAT results for all pupils in years 4 and 5 initially, and the Key Stage 2 attainment in English and Maths for those starting in year 5. There was no school dropout. Individual attrition from a total of 3,159 pupils was around 11 percent—roughly equal between groups. There were small positive ‘effect’ sizes in favour of the P4C group in progress in reading (+0.12) and maths (+0.10), and even smaller perhaps negligible improvements in CAT scores (+0.07) and writing (+0.03). The results for the most disadvantaged (free school eligible) pupils were larger for attainment (+0.29 in reading, +0.17 writing and +0.20 maths), but not for CATs (–0.02). Observations and interviews suggest that the intervention was generally enjoyable and thought to be beneficial for pupil confidence. Our conclusion is that, for those wishing to improve attainment outcomes in the short term, an emphasis on developing reasoning is promising, especially for the poorest students, but perhaps not the most effective way forward. However, for those who value reasoning for its own sake, this evaluation demonstrates that using curriculum time in this way does not damage attainment (and may well enhance it and reduce the poverty gradient in attainment), and so suggests that something like P4C is an appropriate educational approach.

‘Let your data tell a story:’ climate change experts and students navigating disciplinary argumentation in the classroom

ABSTRACTScience education trends promote student engagement in authentic knowledge in practice to tackle personally consequential problems. This study explored how partnering scientists and students on a social media platform supported students’ development of disciplinary practice knowledge through practice-based learning with experts during two pilot enactments of a project-based curriculum focusing on the ecological impacts of climate change. Through the online platform, scientists provided feedback on students' infographics, visual argumentation artifacts that use data to communicate about climate change science. We conceptualize the infographics and professional data sets as boundary objects that supported authentic argumentation practices across classroom and professional contexts, but found that student generated data was not robust enough to cross these boundaries. Analysis of the structure and content of the scientists’ feedback revealed that when critiquing argumentation, scientists initiated engagement in multiple scientific practices, supporting a holistic rather than discrete model of practice-based learning. While traditional classroom inquiry has emphasized student experimentation, we found that engagement with existing professional data sets provided students with a platform for developing expertise in systemic scientific practices during argument construction. We further found that many students increased the complexity and improved the visual presentation of their arguments after feedback.

Preservice Science Teachers’ Epistemological Beliefs and Informal Reasoning Regarding Socioscientific Issues

This study investigated preservice elementary science teachers’ (PSTs) informal reasoning regarding socioscientific issues (SSI), their epistemological beliefs, and the relationship between informal reasoning and epistemological beliefs. From several SSIs, nuclear power usage was selected for this study. A total of 647 Turkish PSTs enrolled in three large universities in Turkey completed the open-ended questionnaire, which assessed the participants’ informal reasoning about the target SSI, and Schommer’s (1990) Epistemological Questionnaire. The participants’ epistemological beliefs were assessed quantitatively and their informal reasoning was assessed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The findings revealed that PSTs preferred to generate evidence-based arguments rather than intuitive-based arguments; however, they failed to generate quality evidence and present different types of evidence to support their claims. Furthermore, among the reasoning quality indicators, PSTs mostly generated supportive argument construction. Regarding the use of reasoning modes, types of risk arguments and political-oriented arguments emerged as the new reasoning modes. The study demonstrated that the PSTs had different epistemological beliefs in terms of innate ability, omniscient authority, certain knowledge, and quick learning. Correlational analyses revealed that there was a strong negative correlation between the PSTs’ certain knowledge and counterargument construction, and there were negative correlations between the PSTs’ innate ability, certain knowledge, and quick learning dimensions of epistemological beliefs and their total argument construction. This study has implications for both science teacher education and the practice of science education. For example, PST teacher education programs should give sufficient importance to training teachers that are skillful and knowledgeable regarding SSIs. To achieve this, specific SSI-related courses should form part of science teacher education programs.

Transparency and the Duty of Full Disclosure in Public and Environmental Health

For this paper, we will consider the necessity of full disclosure and the duty to inform the public of the results of public health related and environmental health studies. The focus of the paper is that the results of the research, which is related to public and environmental health can lead to risks for public health that can endanger human health, so no matter how small the statistical representativeness is, full transparency must be achieved. We chose to review and make an analysis on the public health issues related to the duty to inform the public of research results in a study of dry cleaning workers; the 10b.case as exposed by Steven S. Coughlin in his book “Case Studies in Public Health Ethics”, 2009. In supporting the theme of this paper, the necessity for full transparency of data, which could be of public health and environmental health interest – we will bring a series of pros and cons to full disclosure, followed by a construction of counter arguments and will offer possible solutions to the issue of full disclosure towards the public in the case of data or results of public health related research.

Razonabilidad y criterios sospechosos. El análisis de constitucionalidad de las normas que parecen violar la prohibición de discriminar en México

This work analyses the methodology used principally by Supreme Court of Mexico to resolve issues related to the right to equality and prohibition of discrimination. The basic question which is intended to be answered is: What is the legal logic used for construction of legal arguments in these types of cases? It shows that in several occasions the sentences have been constructed by a free form, while others used the judgment of reasonableness or a strict scrutiny. In another category of sentence rights deliberation was realized to resolve the case. This brings us to a conclusion that the Supreme Court of Mexico lacks consistency in its thesis of the above mentioned matters.

Moral Nativism: Some Controversies

This paper scrutinizes two research programs that advocate respectively for the existence of a universal moral grammar and a predisposition to moralize behaviours with certain contents. It focuses on how the arguments commonly used to ground each program fare at relevant contemporary research in cognitive science and how well they meet constructivist arguments proposed by Jesse Prinz and Kim Sterelny, among others. We argue that there is little evidence that our moral judgements follow the model of principles and parameters. At the same time, ‘ease of learning’ suggests that the human brain is somehow prepared to learn moral rules.

Pre-Analysis Plans for Qualitative Research

El diseno y el registro de Planes Pre-Analisis (PAP) representa un avance significativo en la transparencia de la investigacion en ciencias sociales. Esta herramienta es comunmente usada en la investigacion experimental. En esta nota de investigacion proponemos expandir el uso de los PAP a la investigacion cualitativa. En las decadas recientes, se han producido una serie de innovaciones metodologicas que han mejorado la calidad de los analisis cualitativos. Estas nuevas herramientas han permitido que los investigadores hayan avanzado en el mejoramiento de los procesos de recoleccion de datos y la transparencia en el analisis de datos cualitativo. El desarrollo de Planes Pre-Analisis Cualitativos (PAP-Q) busca sintetizar estos avances como guia de investigacion para mejorar la transparencia y la especificacion del rol de la induccion en la construccion de argumentos causales.

Engaging Middle School Students through Locally Focused Environmental Science Project-Based Learning

Increasing scientific literacy through education is one way to promote awareness of current environmental challenges, and can be enhanced through project-based learning (PBL), a pedagogical approach in which students explore authentic topics and demonstrate their learning publically. The National Science Foundation–funded GK–12 program at Iowa State University partnered doctoral-level graduate students (fellows) with middle and high school science teachers. This study analyzed results from one such middle school partnership in Iowa, where a PBL approach was implemented. Classroom practices focused on local environmental case studies of energy development, water pollution, soil science, climate change, plant biology, and ecology. Results from a student survey (n = 101), following a year with the PBL curricula, revealed significantly more positive attitudes and greater levels of engagement and confidence in scientific material relative to GK–12 peers (n = 329). Publicly submitted student letters to a government agency responsible for approving an oil pipeline project were also analyzed for scientific themes and levels of comprehension (n = 65). Overall, 60% of students demonstrated the ability to construct arguments by citing specific data and scientific evidence in the letters, and also incorporated topics covered in previous units (4–5 themes addressed on average per letter). Results demonstrate that a PBL approach in a middle school science classroom is a method to stimulate attitudes, engagement, confidence, and comprehension in the study of environmental topics. Discussion follows about improving K–12 science education to enhance public understanding and engagement around environmental policy issues.

Customary International Law as an Argumentative Framework: An Alternative Theoretical Approach in International Environmental Law

This research reflects on the legal ascertainment of Customary International Law (CIL). It is argued that CIL is not the result of opinio juris and state practice as the mainstream doctrine generally sustains, but it is rather an Argumentative Framework established, developed and continuously reviewed by the Community of International Lawyers that practice international law. The linchpin of the argument is illustrated in International Environmental Law (IEL), the most dynamic and convoluted field of international law where the functioning of the sources can be more easily observed. To achieve the foregoing purpose, this document initially defends that there is though a Dominant Understanding of CIL, which is usually challenged by alternative theoretical approaches that aim to overcome its inherent flaws. It later demonstrates that there are nevertheless common theoretical groundings among all different approaches that evidence the argumentative construction of this source. It finally develops the main argument conceptualizing both the Argumentative Framework and the Community of International Lawyers that establishes CIL to finally illustrate it in the operation of IEL.

The dialogic construction of justifications and arguments of a seven-year-old child within a ‘democratic’ family

The paper focuses on arguing and reasoning processes occurring at dinnertime family conversations. Our goal is to highlight the interplay between two sides of argumentative practices: the justification as social need to provide evidences for an assertion; the dialogic function of argumentation that refers to the goals arguers want to achieve during discussions. Through the analysis of a case study we discuss a sequence in which a child resists his father’s directive by an elaborated argumentative strategy in order to achieve his goal. Results show how participants engage in opposing the other’s standpoint and are socialized to argumentative dialogues.

Historian as Filmmaker: Reflections on the Making of the Film Documentary Those Dying Days

This article reflects on my experiences making the film documentary Those Dying Days (South Africa, 2012). The documentary itself explores the question of personal and public remembrance of World War Two in Cape Town. It speaks not only to the fluid and adaptive nature of memory, but also to the relative silence regarding the war in terms of public commemoration. The article discusses the challenges and rewards of film as a medium for historical argument and information and argues for an affinity between film and oral history. It provides the thinking behind the choices made in the construction of argument in a non-written discourse (film) and reveals the methods adopted in an attempt to create a complicated historical account which recognises the contingent nature of history and one which allows for a multiplicity of perspectives and voices to be heard. After discussing the making of the documentary, the article concludes that film is more than capable of creating nuanced and complicated historic arguments. Film, in this light, is considered as an alternative discursive mode to the written word (which remains the dominant mode of historical production within academia) and one which questions how, why and for whom historical knowledge is produced.

Argumentation and Decision Making in Professional Practice

How is argumentation used in professional practice? As schools aim to ensure that students are college-and-career ready, classroom practices might be informed by argumentation in the professions. An analysis of evidence-based reasoning in 3 professions—engineering, law, and medicine—offers out-of-school perspectives on the practices and purposes of argumentation. In these fields, sound argumentation is crucial to successful real-world decision making: Is this building design sound? What is the best course of action for this patient? How should this lawsuit be decided? This article brings the role of professional judgment to the fore, as well as professional norms and values in the construction of arguments in the professions. Similarities and contrasts in argumentation and decision making across the 3 professions are drawn.

Online processing of Verb–Argument Constructions: lexical decision and meaningfulness

abstractThis paper discusses how patterns of construction usage, implicitly learned over lifelong experience, tune the language processing system for fluent interactive lexical, syntactic, and semantic access. It reports on three experiments that investigate online processing of Verb–Argument Constructions (VACs) and the degree to which this is effected by (i) verb frequency in the language, (ii) verb frequency in the VAC, (iii) VAC-verb contingency, and (iv) verb prototypicality in terms of centrality within the VAC semantic network. Experiment 1 tested lexical decision of VAC exemplars presented as successive verb–preposition pairs. Experiment 2 tested lexical decision of VAC exemplars presented as arbitrarily interrupted verb–adverb–preposition pairs. Experiment 3 had participants judge whether two-word utterances were meaningful or not. All of the experiments show effects of Verb Frequency and Verb-VAC frequency: learners have rich implicit statistical knowledge of verb-VAC type–token frequency that guides processing. Lexical decision is additionally driven by semantic prototypicality (but not VAC-verb contingency ΔPcw), whereas meaning judgment is affected by VAC-verb contingency ΔPcw (but not semantic prototypicality). These findings, I argue, index the spreading activation of unconscious meaning representation in lexical decision in comparison to the election of a unitary interpretation in conscious comprehension. I conclude that speeded automatic VAC processing involves rich associations, tuned by verb type and token frequencies, their contingencies of usage, and their histories of prototypical and specific interpretations which interface syntax, lexis, and semantics.

More Religion, Less Justification for Violence

A cross-national multilevel analysis was conducted to determine the effects of religion on the extent to which violence is seen as justified against others. Contrary to popular notions that religion causes violence, frequency of prayer, importance of religion, and importance of God were negatively related to justification of violence. Only frequency of service attendance and justification of violence had a positive relationship. This relationship was attenuated when a supernatural meaning system was applied to one's religious beliefs (i.e., religion is primarily for the purpose of making sense of life after death). This meaning system also moderated the relationship between importance of religion and justification of violence. Finally, national-level importance of God moderated the negative relationship between individual level importance of God and justification of violence, strengthening this relationship. Results undermine the constructivist argument for religion as a cause of violence.