Argumentation Skills Mediate the Effect of Peer Argumentation on Content Knowledge in Middle-School Students

• Published in: Journal of educational psychology 2021-05, Vol.113 (4), p.736-753
• Main Authors: Larrain, Antonia, Singer, Vivian, Strasser, Katherine, Howe, Christine, López, Patricia, Pinochet, Jorge, Moran, Camila, Sánchez, Álvaro, Silva, Maximiliano, Villavicencio, Constanza
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Ability; Arguments; Computer Uses in Education; Computers; Control Groups; Curriculum; Educational Technology; Female; Foreign Countries; Grade 4; Group Activities; Human; Institutional Characteristics; Knowledge; Knowledge Level; Learning Processes; Male; Middle School Students; Middle School Teachers; Multiple Regression Analysis; Oral Language; Path Analysis; Peer Relationship; Peers; Persuasive Discourse; Program Effectiveness; School Learning; Science Education; Science Instruction; Skills; Teaching Methods; Test Construction
• ISSN: 0022-0663; 1939-2176
• DOI: 10.1037/edu0000619

There is compelling evidence that arguing with peers in educational contexts fosters students' content knowledge and argumentation skills. Indeed, curricula have already been developed that, through tailored support for peer argumentation, promote both content knowledge and argumentation skills simultaneously. However, we do not yet know how to optimize the occurrence of peer argumentation, although there are suggestions in the literature that computers may have a role to play. Likewise, there are uncertainties about the mechanisms through which the benefits of peer argumentation are achieved, especially whether (and how) there is interdependence across the two types of benefit. In this paper, we report a quasi-experimental study randomized at class level, which addresses these two issues. A total of 502 fourth-grade students and 20 classes and teachers covered a module in science under three conditions: (1) using a curriculum that was already known to promote peer argumentation and content knowledge (standard support), (2) using the same curriculum but with additional computer-based support (computer-enhanced support), and (3) a routinely taught control group. Students' argumentation skills and content knowledge were assessed. Content knowledge was assessed prior to and after the intervention, with immediate and delayed posttests. Multiple regression analyses showed that peer argumentation was indeed most frequent in the computer-enhanced condition. Moreover, on the basis of a multilevel path analysis, we found that individual contributions to peer argumentation had a direct effect on posttest argumentation skills and an indirect effect on posttest content knowledge, both immediate and delayed. The indirect effect of argumentation on delayed posttest content knowledge was mediated by immediate posttest knowledge and posttest argumentation skills. Educational Impact and Implications Statement Peer argumentation in educational contexts has been shown to have benefits in two areas: argumentation skills and content knowledge. This study provides evidence that these benefits are not independent but can be intertwined, prompted by computation-enhanced pedagogical interventions. Moreover, the study shows that peer argumentation of curricular topics in classrooms does not have a direct effect on content knowledge; rather, it is mediated by the development of argumentation skills, providing evidence for a sequential relationship between argumentative interpersonal