Computer-supported argumentation

Draft

Definition

Computer-supported argumentation

• Argumentation is not only discourse for persuasion, logical proof, and evidence-based belief, but more generally, discussion in which disagreements and reasoning are presented. (Kischner, preface) [1]

• Computer-supported argumentation systems can be used in various areas such as decision support or education, i.e. they can be classified either as CSCW or CSCL tools.

See also the writing-to-learn and writing tool topics.

Variants

• Computer-supported collaborative argumention
• Computer-supported argumentation visualization
• Argument writing tools

Why ?

“The age of mind refers to the shift in focus from the production and availability of information and its associated technology, to concerns about how people utilize that information, the barriers and challenges they face in accessing and interacting with information, what they do with information, and how it enables them to get on with their lives.” (Kischner, preface)

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.

Because of the varying demands and benefits believed to be inherent in the genre, it remains one of the most venerated genres in writing-to-learn. It is thought to require students to process information deeply and to construct relationships among ideas, thereby attaining increased understanding and recall of curriculum material (Klein, 1999, p. 230).

Andriessen, Baker, and Suthers (2003) distinguish between the types of learning that argumentation can engender in a collaborative learning environment This is similar to the internal dialectic in which a writer engages during the writing of an argumentative text (Benetos, 2006, p. 10)

• learning from debate (topic specific),
• learning about debate (expanding perspectives on a topic),
• learning to debate (learning the structures and language of argumentation).

The product-related activities involved in argumentative writing are:

• the production of counter-arguments (expanding perspectives and knowledge on the topic),
• the addition or removal of claims (reflecting change in one’s representation of a topic),
• new knowledge construction (from interaction of opposing views).

(Andriessen et al., 2003, p. 9-10)

As a result argumentative writing appears to be one of the most difficult writing genres for novice writers. Due to a limited capacity for reasoning and a difficulty in recognizing causal relationships between events and ideas, writers before 11 or 12 years of age have great difficulty recognizing the bias of a statement in an argumentative text (Brassart, 1996). They can, however, discern bias as early as 8 years old if the classification is simple (e.g.: good or bad) (Roussey & Gombert, 1996).

Young writers also have difficulty generating arguments that are varied, valid and developed. Children under 10 have difficulty conceiving and considering an opposing point of view (Golder & Coirier, 1996, Brassart, 1996), as they are not likely to have reached the level of development that allows for “psychosocial decentering” that increases with age and maturity (Golder & Coirier, 1996, p. 279). The cognitive load involved in keeping in mind diverging points of view and a rhetorical goal during the composition of a text is overwhelming (Roussey & Gombert, 1996). Their underdeveloped linguistic capacities in the use of necessary connectives (thus, but, therefore, etc.) to link and structure ideas add to their difficulty in constructing cohesive arguments. (Akiguet & Piolat, 1996).

Tools

A few tools developed to support argumentation and argumentative writing (with quotes from their homepages):

• DREW - “DREW aims to support collaborative reflection and debate between students across the Internet. Available in six languages: English, French, Dutch, Portuguese, Finnish, Hungarian.”
• Araucaria - “Araucaria is a software tool for analysing arguments. It aids a user in reconstructing and diagramming an argument using a simple point-and-click interface. The software also supports argumentation schemes, and provides a user-customisable set of schemes with which to analyse arguments.”
• Belvedere - “designed to help support problem-based collaborative learning scenarios with concept and evidence models, and provides multiple representational views (tables and graphs) on those models. Belvedere was originally intended to help secondary school students learn critical inquiry skills that they can apply in everyday life as well as in science, but can be adopted to other applications as well.”
• C-SAW - an online authoring tool with built-in scaffolding and self-regulation to help novices of argumentative writing

Related topics: ArgEssML, CSCL, writing tool, cognitive tool

References

• Andriessen, J., Baker, M., and Suthers, D. (2003) Argumentation, Computer Support, and the Educational Context of Confronting Cognitions, Arguing to Learn: Confronting Cognitions in Computer-supported Collaborative Learning Environments. Vol.1. Andriessen, J., Baker, M., and Suthers, D. (Eds.) Kluwer Academic Publishers. pp. 1-26.

• Benetos, K. (2006), 'Computer-Supported Argumentative Writer: An authoring tool with built-in scaffolding and self-regulation for novice writers of argumentative texts', Master thesis, TECFA, University of Geneva. PDF

• Brassart D. G. (1996) Didactique de l’argumentation écrite: Approches psycho-cognitives, Argumentation, Volume 10, No. 1, Kluwer Academic Publishers

• Golder C., Coirier P. (1996) The Production and Recognition of Typological Argumentative Test Markers, Argumentation, Vol. 10, No. 2, pp. 271-282. Kluwer Academic Publishers.

• Klein, P.D. (1999) Reopening Inquiry into Cognitive Processes in Writing-To-Learn. Educational Psychology Review, Vol.11, No. 3. pp. 203-270.

• Paul A. Kirschner, Simon J. Buckingham Shum and Chad S. Carr (Eds.). (2003). Visualizing Argumentation: Software Tools for Collaborative and Educational Sense-Making, Springer-Verlag: London, ISBN 1-85233-6641-1. Information web stite (HTML)

• Yang, J. T. D. (2003). Book review: Visualizing Argumentation - Software Tools for Collaborative and Educational Sense-Making (Editors: P. Kirschner, S. Buckingham-Shum, and C. Carr). Educational Technology & Society , 6(3), 86-88, Available at HTML

• Karacapilidis, N. & Papadias, D. Computer Supported Argumentation And Collaborative Decision Making: The Hermes System PDF. This free paper is also useful for a literature review.

• Chryssafidou, E. DIALECTIC: Enhancing essay writing skills with computersupported formulation of argumentation. PDF