Investigating climate change through argumentation: Purposeful questioning supports argumentation and knowledge acquisition.

Abstract

Over several weeks, 125 young adolescents engaged deeply with the topic of climate change in a discourse-based program designed to build argumentation skills. We put to a test the hypothesis that information on this complex and critical topic is best acquired and made use of in argument if acquiring it is experienced as having purpose and able to fulfill a role in argument. Activities in an experimental condition followed the program’s practice of making available topic-related information in the form of brief questions and answers on an as-requested basis. Offered to them as a potential resource in peer dialogs on the topic, throughout the activity participants selected questions they wished answers to, and these were provided. Students in a comparison condition followed the traditional classroom practice of being assigned to read an introductory text as background information on the topic. It contained information identical to that in the questions and answer cards experimental group participants chose to access. Under both conditions, all information remained available once accessed. Both groups benefited in knowledge gain, as well as skill development in coordinating evidence with claims in final essays. However, the experimental group showed greater knowledge as well as skill gain, and a difference we suggest is attributable to the knowledge gained having an anticipated purpose making them more likely to make use of it.