Abstract

Argumentation has become a prominent theme in education and educational research, mainly due to the growing realization that it is key to active and critical participation in a democratic, globalized society. There is also increasing consensus among psycho-educational scholars that participation in argumentation improves student learning and understanding of subject matter. In this talk, I will argue that notwithstanding a strong theoretical rationale, findings are not always consistent and that productive argumentation is not easily established. I will present findings from an ongoing line of studies in which we try to specify when and how argumentation may produce learning gains and to identify the inhibitors and facilitators of productive student argumentation.

Profile: Christa Asterhan is a Senior Lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and heads the Learning & Instruction program there. Her research focuses on learning in and through human interaction in different settings (such as peer argumentation, online social networks, teacher work teams, and classroom dialogue) and combines experimental as well as qualitative research methods. She is currently a visiting scholar at Utrecht University until July 2017.