We conducted an in vivo experiment (Aleven & Koedinger, 2002) to investigate the impact of Adventures in Argument, a week-long online unit in argumentation, on subsequent science learning from an online course in which individual and collaborative argumentation were the primary forms of pedagogy. The context of the study was HAL Online, an undergraduate course in The Learning Sciences that enrolled 44 students. Using a nested design (students within groups within treatment), the treatment

more »

... ion, Trained Argumentation with Modest Scaffolding (TAMS) was compared with an ecological control group: Emergent Argumentation with Modest Scaffolding (EAMS). Results of quantitative analyses indicated that TAMS was an effective intervention that positively influenced students' individual learning as measured by a test of scientific literacy and scores from coding of individual reflective blogs. Direct training in argumentation offers a viable, pragmatic supplement or alternative to immersive collaborative pedagogies that require guidance and scaffolding of students' online argumentation processes by faculty . Theoretical Basis for TAMS Toulmin's model (1958), the Toulmin Argument Pattern (TAP) has served as the basis for many educational approaches using argumentation (e.g.