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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Electronic Mail as a Forum for Argumentative Interaction in Higher Education Studies

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This article reports a study in which thirty-one undergraduate students practiced academic argumentation by electronic mail (e-mail). In the two “tutorled” e-mail study groups the discussion topics were selected by the tutor, while in the two self-directed “student-led” groups selection was by the students. The quantity and quality of student-student interaction, and the factors associated with this were investigated. The results indicated that 42 percent of the students' messages (n = 441) were interactive in nature, indicating at least one reference to fellow students' messages. When difficult contents were addressed, interaction in the tutor-led groups was more common than in the student-led groups. The student-student interaction was mainly non-argumentative: 62 percent of the students' references (n = 259) expressed something other than the taking a position, 24 percent agreement, 10 percent grounded disagreement, and 4 percent non-grounded disagreement. The students in the student-led groups grounded their disagreement more often, while the students in the tutor-led groups more often expressed agreement. The study supports the superiority of the student-led mode of e-mail studying over the tutor-led mode when promoting argumentative dialogue.