Reports- Research/Technical (143)-- Reports-

This paper is concerned with the importance of argumentation in the classroom, especially in relation to the social sciences. Issues of argument and argument evaluation are considered. The paper analyzes the nature of such reasoning and indicates its importance in subject matter learning. Three situations are described in the paper in which argument-based reasonirj is central in support of conclusions and also in the testing of explanations and the weighing of alternatives in decision tasks. Two experiments, designed to determine whether an individual's agreement or disagreement with a particular assertion is related to the reasons the individual is able to generate for and against the particular proposition, are described and explained in the paper's longest section. Following this, justification of an explanation, another way in which argumentation is found in the classroom, is also more briefly assessed. The paper concludes that utilization of a person's knowledge in the context of argumentation constitutes a reasonable instructional objective. (Twenty-six references are appended.) (MS) * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made