The right to argue: teaching and assessing everyday argumentation skills

Even though there is wide agreement on the importance of argumentation in modern societies, only a minority of students in secondary and postsecondary education receive direct and explicit instruction in argumentation. The present study describes the design and results of a test that was used to measure everyday argumentation skills of 186 undergraduate students in Bogota (Colombia), before and after they completed a one-semester course in logic with emphasis in argumentation. Given that the students came from a variety of academic and socioeconomic backgrounds, this sample allowed us to estimate the potential influence of student-related characteristics on the effectiveness of instruction. On average, students showed significant improvement (d = 0.62), independently of their academic and socioeconomic characteristics. This suggests that receiving this kind of instruction can be beneficial for a wide range of students.