Studying argumentation in higher education by electronic mail

Abstract

The study reports on an e-mail study experiment in which 31 undergraduate students practised argumentation by engaging in mutual e-mail discussions. The study sought to find out whether the students' argumentation skills developed during the e-mail study period. Two tutor-led and two student-led e-mail study groups were formed. During the six-week study period the students prepared e-mail messages on the basis of a course in the sociology of education which consisted of two set books and a series of lectures. The e-mail students practised argumentation by presenting their own grounded standpoints and counterarguments. The students of the comparison group (n = 193) did not practise argumentation but completed the course through self-study of the required course readings. After the course the level of the students' (n = 224) argumentation skills was measured. In addition, the e-mail students (n = 31) were sent a questionnaire, the e-mail tutors (n = 2) were interviewed, and the students' e-mail messages (n = 441) were analysed. The analyses addressed a) the differences in the level of the argumentation skills between the e-mail and the self-study students, and between students of the two different e-mail study modes, b) the e-mail students' and tutors' perceptions and experiences from the e-mail studies, and c) the quality and quantity of argumentation and counterargumentation in the students' e-mail messages, and factors that affected them. The level of the students' argumentation skills proved poor. However, the e-mail students' argumentation skills turned out to be better than the self-study students'. Similarly, the students in the student-led mode performed better in the tasks measuring argumentation skills than the students in the tutor-led mode. In addition, the e-mail students' motivation to learn was high and most of them found that the e-mail discussions included a lot of constructive critique and advice. The tutors found that the e-mail discussions frequently included the students' own standpoints and critical comments. In addition, the level of argumentation in the students' messages improved over time, although the general level of argumentation in the messages was poor. Furthermore, the students in the student-led mode presented more and higher-level counterargumentation than the students in the tutor-led mode. The study suggested that the argumentation skills of Finnish university students should be developed and that e-mail study is a reasonable means for doing this. In addition, the results showed that in particular, the student-led mode of e-mail study provides the students with a good learning environment for the practising of argumentation skills.