Using Sentence Openers to Support Students' Argumentation in an Online Learning Environment

This article describes a study which was designed to explore how sentence openers supported students' construction of arguments in an online learning environment. The study involved a group of students from a teacher training institute in Singapore. As part of the overall teacher training program, the students attended a course that equipped them with skills to effectively examine pedagogical value and production qualities of digital videos, and to design some simple educational videos. Through the course, these students used the Knowledge Community online learning environment to critique, debate and negotiate the strengths and weaknesses of certain digital video clips. The study's strategy involved setting a discussion task for students and providing them with a set of carefully developed sentence openers to help them in constructing arguments. These posts were then collected and their content analyzed. In addition a selected number of students were also interviewed. The study results suggest that sentence openers offer an effective strategy to support students' construction of arguments in an online learning environment.