What Is Meant by Argumentative Competence? An Integrative Review of Methods of Analysis and Assessment in Education

The need to enhance argument skills through education has become increasingly evident during the last 20 years. This need has resulted in an ongoing discussion that focuses on students' and teachers' argumentation, and its support. However, apart from the extended competence-based discourse, no clear and homogeneous definition exists for argumentative competence and its constituent skills. To respond to this deficiency, we conducted an integrative literature review focusing on the methods of argument analysis and assessment that have been proposed thus far in the field of education. Specifically, we constructed an interpretative framework to organize the information contained in 97 reviewed studies in a coherent and meaningful way. The main result of the framework's application is the emergence of three levels of argumentative competence, namely, metacognitive, metastrategic, and epistemological competence. We consider this result the beginning of further research on the psycho-pedagogical nature of argument skills and their manifestation as competent performance

The Effect of Task Instructions on Students' Use of Repetition in Argumentative Discourse

The reasoning belief of argumentum ad nauseam assumes that when someone repeats something often enough, he or she becomes more convincing. The present paper analyses the use of this strategy by seventh-grade students in an argumentation task. Sixty-five students (mean age: 12.2, SD = 0.4) from a public school in a mid-sized urban environment took part in the study. The students were asked to either argue to convince an opposing partner or argue to reach consensus with an opposing partner on three dilemmas that dealt with energy sources. Data were gathered according to a between-groups design that included one independent variable (argumentative goal: to convince vs. to reach consensus) and one dependent variable (the degree of argumentative repetitions). We predicted that in the condition to convince their partner, the students would use the repetition strategy more often in their attempts to be persuasive. Our findings show that the mean number of argumentative repetitions was significantly higher for the persuasion group for both of the most frequent argumentative structures (claim and claim data). The mean percentage of repeated claims for the persuasion condition was 86.2 vs. 69.0 for the consensus condition. For the claim data, the mean percentage for the persuasion group was 35.2 vs. 24.3 for the consensus group. Also, students in the persuasion group tended to repeat one idea many times rather than repeating many ideas a few times within the same argumentative structure. The results of our study support the hypothesis that the goal of the argumentative task mediates argumentative discourse and, more concretely, the rate of repetitions and the conceptual diversity of the statements. These differences in rates of repetition and conceptual diversity are related to the amount of learning produced by the instructional goal. We apply Mercer's idea that not all classroom argumentation tasks promote learning equally

The effect of argumentative task goal on the quality of argumentative discourse

In argumentative discourse, there are two kinds of activity-dispute and deliberation-that depend on the argumentative task goal. In dispute the goal is to defend a conclusion by undermining alternatives, whereas in deliberation the goal is to arrive at a conclusion by contrasting alternatives. In this study, we examine the impact of these tasks goals on the quality of argumentative discourse. Sixty-five junior high school students were organized into dyads to discuss sources of energy. Dyads were formed by members who had differing viewpoints and were distributed to one of two conditions: 31 dyads were asked to discuss with the goal to persuade the partner, and 34 were asked to reach consensus. Argumentation was analyzed using a schema based on Toulmin (1958). Eleven different argumentative structures resulted from the combination of Toulmin's basic elements. Students in the consensus group scored significantly higher than students in the persuasion group in 5/6 argumentative structures that included rebuttals. The major implication of the present work is that, similar to Mercer's (2000) claim about types of classroom conversation, not all classroom argumentation tasks promote scientific reasoning equally

Progresos en la diferenciación funcional entre dibujo, escritura y numerales en niños de 4 a 7 años

El dibujo, la escritura y la notación numérica constituyen medios fundamentales para representar tres tipos diferentes de conocimientos. Aunque los niños son capaces de discriminar el dibujo, la escritura y los numerales muy precozmente (3-4 años), cuando usan estos sistemas producen frecuentemente intercambios funcionales (por ejemplo usan la escritura o el dibujo para representar la cantidad o usan los numerales para identificar objetos). En el presente estudio, un análisis evolutivo muestra que la mayoría de niños de 4 años utiliza el dibujo para representar tanto la identidad como la cantidad de objetos; a los 5 años se empiezan a diferenciar las funciones de cada sistema aunque la combinación en una misma expresión de numerales y escritura es poco frecuente. A los 6 y 7 años aumenta drásticamente el porcentaje de niños que representa de forma diferenciada la identidad de los objetos y su cantidad mediante la escritura y los numerales aunque algunos combinen dibujo, escritura y numerales de forma redundante. Se discuten los aspectos cognitivos de esta diferenciación progresiva

Dialogic Argumentative Interaction Enviroments for the Development of Cultural Literacy Dispositions of Inclusion, Tolerance and Empathy

Podeu consultar el llibre complet a: http://hdl.handle.net/2445/164579[cat] DIALLS té com a objectiu l’alfabetització cultural dels joves en l’educació formal a través del diàleg i de l’argumentació com a mitjà per entendre les identitats i les cultures europees. La novetat de la proposta rau en la intersecció d’alfabetització cultural, multimodalitat, diàleg i argumentació, i mitjançant l’ús d’entorns d’aprenentatge presencials i en línia on els estudiants poden compartir les seves perspectives les seves diferents cultures a Europa. Els estudiants respondran i produiran textos multimodals que reflecteixin els patrimonis europeus que promouen la tolerància, inclusió i empatia com a disposició fonamental de l’alfabetització cultural. Portarem a terme anàlisis de les interaccions cara a cara a l’aula,i en línia entre aules de diferents escoles i de diferentd països. Les anàlisis comparatives de les aules de set països inclourran l’anàlisi de gènere, edat, ètnia, etc.. Les nostres eines innovadores d’ensenyament i avaluació orientaran els professors en el desenvolupament d’una pedagogia dialògica per a l’alfabetització cultural a Europa de demà.[eng] DIALLS aims at developing young people’s cultural literacy understanding in formal education through the teaching of dialogue and argumentation as a means to understand European identities and cultures. The novelty of our proposal lies in the intersection of cultural literacy, multimodality, dialogue and argumentation, and through the use of face-to-face and online learning environments where students can share their perspectives as they make sense of European different cultures. Students will produce multimodal texts reflecting European heritages with the promotion of tolerance, inclusion and empathy as core cultural literacy dispositions. We will conduct analyses of students’ class-based and online interactions, mapping the development of dialogue and argumentation skills. Cross-comparative analyses of classrooms in seven countries. Our innovative teaching and assessment tools will guide teachers in their development of a dialogic pedagogy for cultural literacy in tomorrow’s Europe

The construction of a double-entry table: a study of primary and secondary school students' difficulties

Tables are a presentation format that is commonly used to organize information, and they are widely present in many scenarios of our students' everyday activities; however, there is a scarcity of studies devoted to their analysis. Some of these studies point out that the organization of data into a double entry table presents difficulties for primary and secondary school students. The present study analyzes the following: 1) the level of competency of primary and secondary school students in constructing a double entry table from a set of data and 2) the main difficulties encountered by these students during the task. Our findings showed that the percentage of middle school students who succeeded in contructing a conventional table was relatively low, and the number did not significantly increase over four school years. A set of difficulties is identified and discussed in terms of cognitive and graphical processe

Change in Classroom Dialogicity to Promote Cultural Literacy across Educational Levels

In a highly diverse world, cultural literacy is an essential tool for living together in harmony, and dialogic teaching may be a way to promote and develop it among children and adolescents. We define cultural literacy as a set of attitudes (inclusion, tolerance, and empathy) and skills (dialogic argumentation) needed to understand others in our everyday lives. This paper focuses on the effect of a professional development programme to promote dialogue and argumentation to help children and adolescents overcome pre-existing stereotypes and prejudices and foster students' participation in discussions that contrast divergent viewpoints. This was done through debates on social responsibility issues, living together, and belonging as presented in books and short films addressing the following topics: citizenship, the celebration of diversity, democracy, globalisation, human rights, cooperation, sustainable development, and climate change. After the professional development programme was implemented, we video-recorded two of the 15 student-teacher interaction sessions during the project's implementation (session #3 and session #8). We analysed the data using a validated coding scheme across three educational levels (three preschool, four primary school, and four secondary school classrooms). We observed moderate gains in secondary education and preschool, but statistically significant gains in primary education

Effectivity of pazopanib treatment in orthotopic models of human testicular germ cell tumors

Background: Cisplatin (CDDP) resistance in testicular germ cell tumors (GCTs) is still a clinical challenge, and one associated with poor prognosis. The purpose of this work was to test pazopanib, an anti-tumoral and anti-angiogenic multikinase inhibitor, and its combination with lapatinib (an anti-ErbB inhibitor) in mouse orthotopic models of human testicular GCTs. Methods: We used two different models of human testicular GCTs orthotopically grown in nude mice; a CDDP-sensitive choriocarcinoma (TGT38) and a new orthotopic model generated from a metastatic GCT refractory to first-line CDDP chemotherapy (TGT44). Nude mice implanted with these orthotopic tumors were treated with the inhibitors and the effect on tumoral growth and angiogenesis was evaluated. Results: TGT44 refractory tumor had an immunohistochemical profile similar to the original metastasis, with characteristics of yolk sac tumor. TGT44 did not respond when treated with cisplatin. In contrast, pazopanib had an anti-angiogenic effect and anti-tumor efficacy in this model. Pazopanib in combination with lapatinib in TGT38, an orthotopic model of choriocarcinoma had an additive effect blocking tumor growth. Conclusions: We present pazopanib as a possible agent for the alternative treatment of CDDP-sensitive and CDDP-refractory GCT patients, alone or in combination with anti-ErbB therapies

Emotional reactions and metacognitive engagement in a blended learning program through CBM

Projecte: PID2020-UB/043Analizamos el efecto de la implementación del sistema CBM sobre las emociones declaradas por los estudiantes de la cohorte del máster de formación del profesorado de educación secundaria. Encontramos diferencias significativas en las emociones reportadas por los estudiantes en función del sexo y de la edad/estudios previos (solo grado previo o máster previo).PID2020-UB/04

ErbBs inhibition by lapatinib blocks tumor growth in an orthotopic model of human testicular germ cell tumor

In this work, we have analyzed the expression of different members of the ErbB family in human samples of testicular germ cell tumors (GCTs). We observed expression of ErbB1 or ErbB2 in different tumor subtypes, but we also found high expression of ErbB3 in all GCTs tested. This pattern of expression was maintained when primary tumors were orthotopically implanted in nude mice. We have chosen a choriocarcinoma model characterized by high levels of ErbB1, but also of ErbB2 and ErbB3, to assay the in vivo effect of ErbB inhibitors on tumoral growth. Our results showed a complete lack of effect (refractoriness) to the pure ErbB1 receptor inhibitors cetuximab and gefitinib. While these inhibitors blocked ErbB1 phosphorylation, ErbB2 phosphorylation was not affected, suggesting an ErbB1-independent activation of this receptor. To confirm the importance of ErbB2 activation, animals were treated with lapatinib, a dual ErbB1 and ErbB2 inhibitor. Lapatinib treatment caused a 50% inhibition in tumor growth, an effect correlated with a blockade of both ErbB1 and ErbB2 phosphorylation levels, and of downstream signaling pathways (Akt, ERKs and Stat3). ErbB2 activation could still occur due to the formation of ErbB2/ErbB3 heterodimers, and ErbB3 activation was completely inhibited by lapatinib. Finally, combined inhibition of ErbB1 (gefitinib) and ErbB3 activities (knockdown expression by shRNA) inhibited tumoral testicular cells proliferation in a similar way to lapatinib. Our results explain why lapatinib but not anti-ErbB1 agents might be effective for treatment of testicular GCT patients