Collaborative argumentation through role-play by students on a degree programme in social services

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was to investigate the nature of collaborative argumentation by students enrolled in a degree program in social services. Students (n = 29) in a University of Applied Sciences participated in role-play discussions and problem solving on adolescents’ substance abuse. The discussions were conducted either online (15 students) or face-to-face (14 students). The data comprise the students’ asynchronous online and face-to-face discussions, which were analysed by identifying discussion fragments relevant in collaborative argumentation, and by comparing the results of the two groups. The results showed that the face-to-face discussions were more collaborative than the online discussions. Collaboration during the face-to-face interaction was particularly evident in the higher number of explanations and acceptances. The online discussions, in turn, exhibited a higher quality of argumentation than the face-to-face discussions. However, the level of students’ justifications in both discussion types was rather low. In conclusion, these results emphasise the importance of developing methods of learning collaborative argumentation in social work education for students’ multifaceted understanding of issues encountered in the field.

KEYWORDS:

• Collaborative argumentation
• ill-structured problems
• role-play
• social work education
• statistical analysis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kati Vapalahti

Kati Vapalahti is a Senior lecturer in the Degree Program of Social Services in the Department of Social Services and Health Care, South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences. She defended her doctoral thesis on collaborative argumentation when solving open-ended problems in 2017. She has published journal articles on argumentative problem solving, migration and multicultural work, and on social pedagogical methods in social work and social work education.

Miika Marttunen

Miika Marttunen is a Professor of Education at the Department of Education, University of Jyväskylä, Finland. His research interests include collaborative learning, argumentation and digital literacies. Previously he has led research projects on educational technology, collaborative argumentation, and argumentation visualization.