Arguing to Learn

An argument for learning should be evaluated on the basis of its collaborative value as a contribution to the conversation.When students collaborate in argumentation in the classroom, they are arguing to learn. When viewed as a collaborative practice, argumentation can help learners to accomplish a wide variety of important learning goals There are four learning mechanisms that are potentially associated with effective arguing to learn. Making knowledge explicit, Conceptual change, Co-elaboration of new knowledge, Increasing articulation.When learning is conceived of as a process of active construction, of collaborative knowledge building, then it can be thought of as an outcome of argumentative processes.Argumentation is one of the features of collaborative learning that make student groups so effective at promoting individual learning.Good argumentation depends on knowing the facts of a field, but knowing the facts does not predict good argumentation. Individual reasoning can benefit from arguing to learn, but argumentation must be scaffolded by the environment to support a gradual appropriation of collaborative argumentation. In collaborative learning, argumentative activities are grounded in other (shared) activities; they are not goals in themselves (or perhaps they are goals only during brief moments of reflection). Arguing to learn needs to be embedded in collaborative activity, and driven by a desire for understanding and sharing that understanding with others.

 1) How does it affect collaboration relationships between the students?