Promoting multi-perspective integration as a 21st century skill: The effects of instructional methods encouraging students’ spontaneous use of tables for organizing information

Integrating multiple perspectives when constructing an argumentation about a topic which has both arguments and counter-arguments is a very important 21st Century skill. In this study, we examined whether using tables for organizing information would be supportive of this argumentation process. Participants were 56 8th-grade students participating in a 5-day summer course. Pre-and post-assessments were administered at the beginning and end, and participants made oral presentations, which were video recorded for analysis. Participants were assigned to one of three conditions. In two of the conditions, participants were encouraged to use tables for organizing information and, in one of those conditions, participants were additionally provided exercises that required identification of problems in videos showing bad examples of argumentation. Results showed that participants encouraged to use tables spontaneously used more diagrams and constructed more argumentation in which multiple perspectives were integrated than others without such encouragement. Participants provided the exercise in problem identification also showed higher recognition of the value of using diagrams.