Strengthening collaborative argumentation with interactive guidance: a dialogic peer feedback approach based on the six thinking hats strategy

ABSTRACT

Collaborative argumentation supported by argumentation mapping is important for developing college students’ argumentation ability. However, in conventional argumentation mapping-supported collaborative argumentation (AM-CA) activities, learners tend to quickly reach consensus without sufficient discussion and negotiation, or fail to spontaneously assess and integrate the group’s ideas, thus failing to develop more comprehensive and in-depth arguments. Therefore, this study proposed a six thinking hats strategy-based dialogic peer feedback approach to support AM-CA activities, which was expected to support students’ iterative negotiation and deeper interactions through dialogic peer feedback, thus enhancing the quality of argumentation. To show the effectiveness of the proposed approach, this study used a quasi-experimental method to test the proposed strategy in a freshman seminar class at a university. The control group (22 students) used the conventional AM-CA (C-AM-CA) approach, while the experimental group (22 students) used the six thinking hats strategy-based AM-CA (STH-AM-CA) approach. The findings showed that STH-AM-CA improved the quality of argumentation mapping compared to C-AM-CA, but it also significantly increased the learners’ cognitive load. In addition, a thematic inductive qualitative analysis of the interview data demonstrated the strengths and weaknesses of each strategy.

KEYWORDS:

• Dialogic peer feedback
• collaborative argumentation
• learning activities
• CSCL

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Social Science Fund of China [grant number BCA220215].

Notes on contributors

Zhi-Qiang Ma

Zhi-qiang Ma is a professor at the School of Education, Jiangnan University, China. His research interests include computer-supported collaborative learning, learning analysis and evaluation.

Ling-Yu Kong

Ling-yu Kong is a postgraduate student at the School of Education, Jiangnan University, China. Her research interests include computer-supported collaborative learning, learning analysis and evaluation.

Yun-Fang Tu

Yun-Fang Tu is an associate professor at the Department of Educational Technology, University of Wenzhou, China. Her research interests include information literacy, digital library, online learning, mobile and ubiquitous learning.

Gwo-Jen Hwang

Gwo-Jen Hwang is a chair professor of the Graduate Institute of Educational Information and Measurement, National Taichung University of Education as well as a chair professor at the Graduate Institute of Digital Learning and Education, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan. He is also the Emeritus Chair Professor of Yuan Ze University, Taiwan. His research interests include mobile learning, digital game-based learning, flipped classrooms, and artificial intelligence in education.

Zi-Yun Lyu

Zi-Yun Lyu is a teacher of Wuxi Tianyi Experimental School, China. Her research interests include computer-supported collaborative learning, learning analysis and evaluation.