FOSTERING ARGUMENTATIVE DISCOURSE AND ATTITUDINAL CHANGE THROUGH A DIGITAL DIALOGUE GAME WITH EMPHASIS ON STUDENTS’ EPISTEMIC BELIEFS

Learning argumentation and being able to engage in argumentative discourse is fundamental to many class assignments for students of all ages especially for undergraduate students. That is why, over the last decade, digital games have been designed in online learning environments based on a pedagogical approach that stimulates a desired mode of interaction and argumentative dialogues. Despite inclusion of motivational factors on these digital games for scaffolding argumentation, students’ own argumentative characteristics such as willingness to argue and their argumentativeness are still ignored. Willingness to argue and the level of argumentativeness have a direct association with students epistemic beliefs, and can be linked to specific aspects of argumentative learning, such as problem-solving, interpreting controversial information, and conceptual change. There is little empirical evidence on how students engage in argumentative discourse through a digital dialogue game in a real educational setting. The picture is also unclear when it comes to the role of epistemic beliefs as the indicator of students’ willingness to argue on their argumentative discourse. Therefore, the primary purpose of this study is to explore how undergraduate students engage in argumentative discourse through a digital dialogue game. The second purpose of this study is to shed light on the effects of students’ epistemic beliefs on their argumentative discourse in a digital dialogue game. Specifically, the aim is to explore how undergraduate students in higher education with various epistemic beliefs engage in argumentative discourse by exposing them to controversial topics and conflicting views within a dialogue game which is fun to play, but encourages challenges. The underlying rational behind this is that the prior empirical research has not yet measured the effects of students’ epistemic beliefs on their argumentative discourse when student willingness to argue is enhanced by digital dialogue game. Furthermore, since argumentation involves social process and facilitates students’ consideration of alternative viewpoints, it is expected that confrontation of viewpoints during argumentative discourse with learning partners leads to modification of students’ attitudes towards the topic of discussion. The third aim of this study is thus to explore the role of students’ epistemic beliefs on their attitudinal change in a digital dialogue game. This study explores how undergraduate students with various epistemic beliefs engage in argumentative discourse and shift their attitudinal change within a digital dialogue game. Students were assigned to groups of four or five and asked to argue and explore various perspectives of four controversial issues of environmental education in four consecutive weeks that each lasted 90 minutes. The results showed the digital dialogue game can guide students towards a desired mode of interaction and argumentative dialogues. Epistemic beliefs of students were seen to be an important factor for the way students engage in argumentative discourse and also their attitudinal change. Based on this study, we can conclude that the use of an appropriate learning design, such as a digital dialogue game and creating diverse learning groups with multiple conflicting opinions enhanced the willingness to argue of all students.