R. H. Gass

Does teaching argumentation facilitate critical thinking

This research examined whether training in argumentation facilitated critical thinking by enhancing the ability to discern strong and weak arguments and whether such training increased the need for cognition, argumentativeness, perceived arguing effectiveness and decreased verbal aggressiveness. Participants included 299 experimental group members who were receiving instruction in argumentation and 58 comparison group members receiving instruction in introductory interpersonal communication. Respondents completed questionnaires in the first and last weeks of the term assessing their argument perception, perceived arguing effectiveness, argumentativeness, need for cognition and verbal aggressiveness. Results revealed that argument instruction enhanced the ability to discern weak example and causal arguments, increased perceived arguing effectiveness and decreased verbal aggressiveness. These results are discussed in terms of critical thinking and outcomes assessment for argumentation instruction.

Ethnic Comparison and Measurement of Argumentativeness, Verbal Aggressiveness, and Need for Cognition.

An analysis of three trait measures related to argumentation behavior—argumentativeness, verbal aggressiveness, and need for cognition—confirmed that all three measures represented separate constructs. Need for cognition was found to correlate positively with argumentativeness and negatively with verbal aggressiveness. These three measures, also, were investigated across three ethnic groups of Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, and European Americans. Analyses revealed significant ethnic differences for verbal aggressiveness and need for cognition. The results are discussed with regard to teaching argumentation and critical thinking, and as a means for improving the understanding of ethnic and/or cultural differences which may influence argumentation behavior.

Teaching Students How to Analyze and Adapt to Audiences.

Goal: To provide students with an opportunity to understand, practice, and evaluate audience adaptation Courses: Persuasion and Public Speaking

Theoretical Arguments in Debate Rounds: Toward a Justification.

Debates focusing on questions of debate theory have become increasingly more common. While some judges and coaches bemoan the presence of theoretical arguments in debate rounds, the present essay s...

Persuasion GO: An Activity for Increasing Students' Awareness of Approaches to Social Influence.

ABSTRACT Courses: Persuasion, Compliance Gaining Objectives: In this single-class activity, based loosely on the video-game sensation Pokémon GO, students learn about, enact, and “capture” a variety of compliance-gaining tactics. Along the way, they gain awareness of various approaches to persuasion, the implications of using such approaches, habitual persuasion, and the goals-plans-action model.

Social Influence, Sociology of

Social influence involves intentional and unintentional efforts to change another persons beliefs, attitudes, or behavior. Unlike persuasion, which is typically intentional and requires some degree of awareness on the part of the target, social influence may be inadvertent or accidental. Social influence often operates via peripheral processing. Hence, the target may be unaware of the influence attempt. Unlike compliance gaining, which is usually goal directed, social influence is often nongoal directed and the outcomes may be inconsistent with, or unrelated to, a communicators goals. Social influence encompasses such strategies as indebtedness or reciprocity, commitment, social proof, liking and attractiveness, authority, and scarcity.

Persuasion on Trial: An Exercise for Understanding the Benefits of Studying Persuasion

Courses: Persuasion, Compliance Gaining, Communication and Ethics Objective: Students will understand the benefits of studying persuasion.

Teaching Social Influence: Resources and Exercises from the Field of Communication

Effective teachers know that when students are engaged in active learning, they learn more, retain it longer, apply it better, and continue to learn (Weimer, 1993). One way to promote such learning is through the use of innovative classroom activities that lead students to understand, interpret, and/or apply information. In that spirit, educators in the field of communication have developed an array of activities and demonstrations for promoting active learning in students of social influence. To facilitate the use of such activities, this article uses an annotated bibliography format to review over 30 published articles designed by communication teachers to help instructors, especially new instructors, teach their students persuasion principles and practices including the Extended Parallel Process Model, Inoculation Theory, persuasive language, Monroes Motivated Sequence, persuasive campaigns, credibility, deception, audience analysis and adaptation, power, and compliance gaining.

The Narrative Perspective in Academic Debate: A Critique.

The present essay critiques the narrative perspective of academic debate, and identifies three problems. First, the narrative perspective fails to provide precise answers to a number of theoretical...