Measuring university students’ ability to recognize argument structures and fallacies
Journal
Frontiers in Psychology
ISSN
1664-1078
Type
journal article
Date Issued
2023
Author(s)
Yvonne Berkle
;
Lukas Schmitt
;
Antonia Tolzin
;
;
;
;
Miriam Leuchter
Research Team
IWI6
Abstract
Theory: Argumentation is crucial for all academic disciplines. Nevertheless, a lack of argumentation skills among students is evident. Two core aspects of argumentation are the recognition of argument structures (e.g., backing up claims with premises, according to the Toulmin model) and the recognition of fallacies. As both aspects may be related to content knowledge, students studying different subjects might exhibit different argumentation skills depending on whether the content is drawn from their own or from a foreign subject. Therefore, we developed an instrument to measure the recognition of both argument structures and fallacies among the groups of preservice teachers and business economics students in both their respective domains (pedagogy and economics), and a neutral domain (sustainability). For the recognition of fallacies, we distinguished between congruent and incongruent fallacies. In congruent fallacies, the two aspects of argument quality, i.e., deductive validity and inductive strength, provide converging evidence against high argument quality. In incongruent fallacies, these two aspects diverge. Based on dual process theories, we expected to observe differences in the recognition of congruent and incongruent fallacies.
Language
English
Keywords
measuring argumentation skills
argument structure
fallacies
domain specificity
argument quality
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
Yes
Publisher
Frontiers
Volume
14
Number
1270931
Pages
17
Division(s)
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
open.access
Name
JML_954.pdf
Size
1006.97 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
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