Assessing the Impact of A Structured Argumentation Board on the Quality of Students' Argumentative Writing Skills

摘要

This paper focuses on design of qualitative discourse-based methods for effective assessment of students' quality of argumentation. We advance a method for qualitative assessment of students' argument which we through discourse-based methods evaluate the speaker's stance in the argument, the speaker's thematic development of the content and criteria for layout. Our research program takes a design-based research approach focusing on the design and evaluation of Web-based learning environments that support the teaching and development of student's critical thinking skills and disposition through development of the skills of sound argumentation. The purpose of the research is to develop materials and strategies to support argumentation in the classroom with a Web-based tool for group argumentation, and to support the teachers' developing skills for teaching argumentation. Data was collected pre and post and during a four week intervention. Students causal argumentation essay were collected both pre and post. The paper presents the method with an analysis of one student's causal argumentation essays before and after the intervention.