Software tools for scaffolding argumentation competence development

Abstract

Argumentation is significant to vocational, professional and higher education due to the importance of discourse in the acquisition of scientific knowledge and its application in handling complex and societal issues in the third millennium. In real-world settings, building arguments, constructing counter-arguments and exploring the dialogical space of solutions are shaped in the daily social conversation and also in various social networking sites. However, the ill-defined nature of argumentation makes it difficult for learners to follow a set of strict rules and unbending laws on constructing arguments and responding to counter-arguments in order to gain and construct knowledge, reject false viewpoints, refine and modify claims and eliminate misunderstandings and misconceptions about the issue at stake. To cope with this, various software tools have been introduced and developed to help students practise and learn real-world competence of argumentation. The most recent approach is the use of computer-supported tools, such as representational guidance tools, digital dialogue games and micro- and macro-scripting approaches to scaffold argumentation and support the building, representing and sharing of arguments with the aim of learning. This chapter illustrates these software tools and explains how and when each of them could be used, and under which conditions, to optimally scaffold argumentation in vocational, professional and higher education.