Argumentation has been regarded as an umbrella term under which all reasoning lies. It is an essential 21st-century skill according to curricular reform efforts (e.g., Common Core State Standards, 2010; Next Generation Science Standards, 2013).
Yet, the development of these critical skills is not sufficiently emphasized in current curricular practices. This is a serious concern especially in view of the fact that these critical skills are not naturally developing (which implies they need to be taught).
How, then, can we best support today’s young minds in developing the argumentive reasoning skills that lie at the heart of critical thinking?
My research inquiries into the developmental mechanisms, most notably apprenticeship learning, underlying argumentive discourse and reasoning. My recent work showed young adolescents gradually appropriating more powerful argument strategies when interacting with a more skilled adult dialogic partner, compared to a peer partner of similar age and ability (Halpern, 2021; Halpern & Kuhn, 2021). Yet, adolescents also showed skill gains when interacting only with same-skill peers (Halpern, 2021; Halpern & Kuhn, 2021).
My findings suggest that existing ideas on the role of peer collaboration as a mechanism of development (emphasized by both Vygotsky and Piaget, with Vygotsky’s emphasis on the role of the more capable other and Piaget’s on peers of equal status and ability) may be more nuanced than previously thought.
I plan to examine young adolescents’ dialogic interaction with older adolescents to investigate whether the apprenticeship mechanism is evident as well in this case.
RESEARCH
FEATURED ARTICLES
What We Learned From Covid-19 About Discourse-Based Learning
Now is an auspicious time to make student-centered discourse a centerpiece of social and civic education, as well as across the curriculum more broadly. We describe here the features of the middle-school program we have developed and implemented for this purpose, emphasizing its concentration on direct student-to-student communication, in contrast to the more common whole-class teacher-led discussion. The Covid-19 epidemic forced us to modify the way in which we implemented the program, eliminating face-to-face contact. What had been an in-person interactive discourse-based workshop we transformed into a remotely-experienced, technology-supported interaction between rotating student pairs. Each participant debated individually with a sequence of individual peers who held an opposing view on a series of social issues. This modified distance-learning approach revealed some unanticipated benefits that we share here. Most notable among them were the enhanced comfort in sharing their views that participants reported they experienced, due to the remote, text-only connection that concealed their personal identities.