Practicando la argumentación en educación secundaria: El efecto del sexo

Abstract

This paper analyzes argumentation in secondary education based on previous considerations such as its limited presence in the classroom and the controversy about how it relates to sex. We delimited and characterized two dimensions of argumentative discourse (form and content) according to sex and situational variables: type of group and type of dilemma. Applying the Hi-Loglinear technique, we analyzed a sample of 2250 utterances by 38 (female and male) adolescents, debating about group conflict and intimate partner violence. In general, the students used low levels of argumentation, although female students used significantly more argumentation than their male counterparts which is an effect of the relation between sex and argumentation situated by contextual variables. Finally, we look at some practical applications for teaching.