Title:	ARGUMENTATION IN STUDENTS’ ESSAYS WRITTEN DURING COMPUTER SUPPORTED TEACHING EXPERIMENT
Author(s):	Kati Vapalahti , Leena Laurinen , Miika Marttunen
ISBN:	978-972-8924-69-0
Editors:	Kinshuk, Demetrios G Sampson, J. Michael Spector, Pedro Isaías and Dirk Ifenthaler
Year:	2008
Edition:	Single
Keywords:	Argumentation, argumentative scripts, social education, essay writing
Type:	Full Paper
First Page:	183
Last Page:	190
Language:	English
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Paper Abstract:	Social educators are required to engage in critical discussion on social issues. That skill should be practised already during professional studies. This paper presents a teaching experiment in which polytechnic students practised argumentation virtually and face-to-face. The paper further describes the quality of the students’ (N=29, age 21–29, females) argumentation in three essays (N=75) about effects of adolescents’ use of intoxicants on their well-being. The essays were written during different phases of the teaching experiment, and the perspective for writing the essays varied in the three writing phases. The results showed considerable variation in the students’ argumentation across their essays. When writing about their own use of intoxicants, 52% of the students wrote that the use of intoxicants did not affect their wellbeing. When arguing about adolescents’ use of intoxicants in general, the majority (74%) of the students presented only negative standpoints on the effects of adolescents’ use of intoxicants. In their third essays, after working in asynchronous virtual role play, nearly half of the students (48%) saw both positive and negative effects in the virtual role play case of a young girl’s use of alcohol. The number of arguments and counterarguments increased in the students’ three essays during the teaching experiment. The results suggest that argumentative writing tasks as a part of a computer supported teaching entity are one means for recognizing the diverse nature of social issues.
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