A teaching experiment in Finland was designed to clarify ways to teach argumentation in Finnish higher education and how to motivate students to participate in critical content-area discussions. Finnish students traditionally hesitate to criticize each other's opinions or those of the teacher. The experimental teaching method gave them the…

This study involved a teaching experiment in which academic argumentation was practiced during a ten-week email course in a Finnish university. During the course, two working methods were used: free debate and role play. The aim of the study was to clarify how these two working methods activated students in mutual argumentative dialogue and…

In a teaching experiment, 16 face-to-face and 11 e-mail Finnish university students studied academic debating in an argumentation course. Results indicated the e-mail students learned to identify and choose relevant grounds, while face-to-face students improved in putting forward counter-argumentation. The study suggests that argumentation skills…

This article describes a teaching experiment in Finland to develop critical thinking and argumentation skills in a university course using both face-to-face and e-mail settings. Subjects (n=49) were advanced students of education and three faculty members. All students received two lectures on argumentation and packages of argumentative writings…

In a teaching experiment, 16 face-to-face and 11 e-mail Finnish university students engaged in an argumentation course. The 19 students of the control group did not study argumentation. The course involved two lectures, exercises with argumentative texts, and face-to-face or e-mail seminar discussions based on these texts. The topics of the texts…