Review of Research: Teaching and Learning Argumentative Reading and Writing--A Review of Research

• Published in: Reading research quarterly 2011-07, Vol.46 (3), p.273
• Main Authors: Newell, George E, Beach, Richard, Smith, Jamie, VanDerHeide, Jennifer
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cognitive Processes; Discussion; Elementary Secondary Education; Higher Education; Inquiry; Intellectual Disciplines; Pedagogical Content Knowledge; Persuasive Discourse; Research Methodology; Researchers; Social Behavior; Teaching Methods; Theory Practice Relationship; Transfer of Training; Writing Instruction; Writing Teachers
• ISSN: 0034-0553
• DOI: 10.1598/RRQ.46.3.4

Acquiring argumentative reading and writing practices reflects a key component of recent curricular reforms in schools and universities throughout the United States and the world as well as a major challenge to teachers of reading and writing in K-12 and college writing classrooms. In this review, we consider the contributions of two research perspectives, cognitive and social, that researchers have employed in the study of the teaching and learning of argumentative reading and writing. We address two basic questions: How do these perspectives with their own disciplinary frameworks and logics of inquiry interactively inform how researchers study argumentative reading and writing, and consequently, how have these orientations informed pedagogical knowledge that may support teachers' understanding of what argumentation is and how it may be taken up in the educational contexts? We analyze relevant conceptual and empirical studies by considering assumptions underlying the cognitive and social disciplinary perspectives, especially in terms of the warrants that those perspectives assume. We also interrogate how these perspectives' logics of inquiry reveal assumptions about the transfer of learning as supported by instruction and other practices, such as classroom discussion, computer-supported collaborations, and other forms of instructional support. Using empirical studies of the teaching and learning of argumentative reading and writing conducted in grades K-12 and college writing classrooms, we delineate the assumptions that drive the two perspectives and their instructional consequences, arguing that researchers and teachers need an understanding of their assumptions about knowledge and transfer in order to establish a clear and coherent relationship between theory and practice. We offer a vision for research that integrates the cognitive and social perspectives to argue that the work of literacy research is to reveal cognitive processes and instructional practices that teachers can promote and students can employ for learning how to do argumentative reading and writing. (Contains 2 notes.)