Is the Text-Based Cognitive Tool More Effective Than the Concept Map on Improving the Pre-Service Teachers’ Argumentation Skills?

Abstract How to improve pre-service teachers’ argumentation skills has been receiving more and more attention from teacher educators. Visual cognitive tool refers to tools which users can learn with and creatively use to construct knowledge online. Current research revealed that it could help to improve learners’ higher-order thinking skills. This experimental study aimed to investigate the effect of two kinds of cognitive tools, the text-based online visual cognitive tool and the visual concept map, on improving the pre-service teachers’ skills on constructing and evaluating arguments. Post-test argumentation measurement scores and attitude questionnaire showed that the text-based cognitive tool was more effective than the concept map on improving pre-service teachers’ argumentation skills. However, the concept map was useful for externalizing the pre-service teachers’ thinking process as well as collaborative learning. This study also found that the pre-service teachers with teaching experience were inferior to the ones without any teaching experience in the ability on constructing arguments.