Improving Argumentative Skills in Education: Three Online Discussion Tools

How can we foster sound argumentation and valid criticism in education? How to help students to avoid fallacies, resist polarization, respond wisely to misleading information, and how to make them produce arguments that are genuinely responsive to the position of those they address? I sketch a dialogical account of the nature of sound argument and criticism. Then, I discuss two types of argumentative dialogue: persuasion dialogue and negotiation dialogue. Finally, I explain how software applications provide an opportunity for students to analyse, evaluate and produce arguments, and to critically think about the design of discussion procedures. I also discuss a third software application that enables teachers and advanced students to themselves design online discussion procedures, so as to experiment with them and to advance their understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of various design choices. This paper support the idea that students’ argumentative skills will be enhanced by letting them engage in the online discussion procedures presented.

La labor educativa de los docentes del año en la formación del profesional de Cultura Física

La presente investigación aborda una temática de importancia y actualidad en los centros de enseñanza superior referida al proceso del trabajo educativo en los estudiantes de la Licenciatura en Cultura Física. La misma revela las insuficiencias que aún se manifiestan en el proceso de formación de los estudiantes en la carrera lo cual limita su compromiso con la naturaleza pedagógica de la profesión en la práctica social. En tal sentido se aplicaron métodos de revisión y análisis documental y bibliográfico acerca del tema, los métodos empíricos para la caracterización de los grupos y los métodos de persuasión, diálogo y debate para la realización de la propuesta del trabajo educativo en la carrera Cultura Física haciendo énfasis en los elementos esenciales epistemológicos del qué , cómo y para qué de las acciones educativas en aras de incentivar en los estudiantes las obligaciones, compromiso y deber con el encargo social profesional. El aporte fundamental del trabajo se expresa en las formas, vías y métodos de organización y planificación de las acciones que persuaden, estimulan y sancionan a los estudiantes y eleva la percepción del ejemplo personal del docente. PALABRAS CLAVE: trabajo educativo, métodos, formación profesional ABSTRACT This research addresses an important and topical issue in higher education centers related to the process of educational work in students from the Sports Culture Program. It reveals the inadequacies that are still manifested in the process of training students in the career, which limits their commitment to the pedagogical nature of the profession in social practice. In this sense, methods of review and documentary and bibliographic analysis were applied on the subject, empirical methods for the characterization of the groups and the methods of persuasion, dialogue and debate for the realization of the educational work proposal in the Sports Culture career doing emphasis on the essential epistemological elements of the what, how and for what of educational actions in order to encourage in students the obligations, commitment and duty with the professional social commission. The fundamental contribution of the work is expressed in the forms, ways and methods of organization and planning of actions that persuade, stimulate and sanction students and elevate the perception of the teacher's personal example.

Pressure and Argumentation in Public Controversies

When can exerting pressure in a public controversy promote reasonable outcomes, and when is it rather a hindrance? We show how negotiation and persuasion dialogue can be intertwined. Then, we examine in what ways one can in a public controversy exert pressure on others through sanctions or rewards. Finally, we discuss from the viewpoints of persuasion and negotiation whether and, if so, how pressure hinders the achievement of a reasonable outcome.

Clarifying our Ideas in Persuasion Dialogue

Persuasion dialogue sometimes helps us to clarify our ideas; this paper attempts to find out what clarification consists in. It criticizes Walton’s view, which explains clarification as making implicit commitments explicit and proposes a different approach according to which clarification consists in replacing narrowly individuated views with epistemically better ones which retain elements of the earlier views. It also argues that clarification so conceived is not one of the main goals of persuasion dialogue but rather an accidental even if welcome side effect.

Formal systems for persuasion dialogue

This article reviews formal systems that regulate persuasion dialogues. In such dialogues two or more participants aim to resolve a difference of opinion, each trying to persuade the other participants to adopt their point of view. Systems for persuasion dialogue have found application in various fields of computer science, such as non-monotonic logic, artificial intelligence and law, multi-agent systems, intelligent tutoring and computer-supported collaborative argumentation. Taking a game-theoretic view on dialogue systems, this review proposes a formal specification of the main elements of dialogue systems for persuasion and then uses it to critically review some of the main formal systems for persuasion. The focus of this review will be on regulating the interaction between agents rather than on the design and behaviour of individual agents within a dialogue.