Students’ Argument Patterns in Asynchronous Dialogues for Learning

The research reported in this study focuses on how distance students can learn to use argumentation processes as a tool for learning. For ten weeks, 30 student teachers studied the webbased 15 credit course Teacher Assignment. Data were collected from five student groups’ asynchronous argumentation, relating to authentic cases of teacher leadership. Focus was placed on the extent to which students used own and others' texts meaning content in the discussion forum and how the content can be analysed. An analytical framework, based on Bakhtin’s theories of dialogues, and Toulmin’s argument pattern (TAP), is employed to assess the quality of the written asynchronous argument patterns. A close investigation of the dialogical argument pattern (N=253) shows the extent to which students distinguish, identify and describe the meaning content of the arguments that emerge in social and dialogic interactions in the web-based setting. A dialogic model for argument analysis is also described.