Academic Controversy
What Is Academic Controversy?
Controversy exists when one person's ideas,
information, conclusions, theories, and opinions are incompatible
with those of another, and the two seek to reach an agreement
(Johnson & Johnson, 1995). Controversies are inherent in
both academic content (intellectual issues exist in every academic
discipline and subject area) and cooperative groups (members
have different ideas, opinions, and conclusions as they are working
together to complete assignments and master learning).
Academic controversy is the instructional
use of intellectual conflict to promote higher achievement and
increase the quality of problem solving, decision making, critical
thinking, reasoning, interpersonal relationships, and psychological
health and well-being. To engage in an academic controversy students
must research and prepare a position, present and advocate their
position, refute opposing positions and rebut attacks on their
own position, reverse perspectives, and create a synthesis that
everyone can agree to.
Structured academic controversy is most often contrasted with
concurrence seeking, debate, and individualistic learning. To
resolve an issue through concurrence seeking,
students inhibit discussion to avoid any disagreement and compromise
quickly to reach a consensus. In a debate, students
present and defend only one position before a judge who ultimately
determines who presented the best position. In individualistic
learning, students consider issues independently, working
on their own with their own set of materials at their own pace.
Academic controversy results in more positive outcomes for students
compared to concurrence seeking, debate, or individualistic learning.
Why Use Academic Controversy?
There is considerable research evidence validating the use
of academic controversy (Johnson & Johnson, 1989, 1995).
The positive outcomes for students can be classified into three
broad areas:
- Achievement: Academic controversy results
in greater achievement and retention; higher quality reasoning,
problem solving and decision making; more frequent creative insight;
more thorough exchange of expertise; greater task involvement;
and attitude change.
- Interpersonal Relationships: Academic controversy
results in greater liking and social support among participants.
- Psychological Health: Academic controversy
results in greater self-esteem, social competence, and ability
to cope with stress and adversity.
Structuring Academic Controversy
In The Classroom
Academic controversy is a cooperative learning strategy and,
therefore, must be carefully structured to include positive interdependence,
face-to-face promotive interaction, individual and group accountability,
interpersonal and small group skills, and group processing. To
teach an academic controversy lesson, teachers must (a) make
preinstructional decisions and preparations (decide on instructional
objectives, group size, group formation, room arrangement, instructional
materials, and student roles), (b) orchestrate the academic task,
cooperative structure, and controversy procedure (explain the
task, structure positive interdependence, structure the controversy,
structure individual accountability, explain criteria for success,
and specify desired behaviors), (c) monitor and intervene (observe
interaction among group members, ensure adherence to the controversy
procedure, provide academic assistance, and teach controversy
skills), and (d) evaluate and process (provide closure, assess
and evaluate student learning, and provide group processing and
celebration).
The controversy procedure consists of five steps (Johnson
& Johnson, 1995).
- Organizing Information And Deriving Conclusions:
Students research a position, learn the relevant information,
and prepare a persuasive "best case possible" for the
position.
- Presenting And Advocating Positions: Students
present in a persuasive and convincing way the "best case
possible" for their position.
- Uncertainty Created By Being Challenged By Opposing
Views: Students engage in an open discussion in which
they argue forcefully for their position, refute the opposing
position, and rebut attacks on their position.
- Epistemic Curiosity And Perspective Taking:
Students reverse perspectives and present the opposing position
as accurately, completely, persuasively, and forcefully as they
can.
- Reconceptualizing, Synthesizing, and Integrating:
Students drop all advocacy, create a synthesis or integration
of the opposing positions, and reach a consensus on the best
reasoned judgment that may be made about the issue.
The Role Of Academic Controversy In The
Cooperative School
A cooperative school is a conflict positive organization that
teaches students how to manage conflict constructively (Johnson
& Johnson, 1994, 1995). To do so (a) a cooperative context
must be established which can be accomplished by using cooperative
learning most of the day, (b) academic controversies must be
structured in the classroom to maximize learning from intellectual
issues and enable students to practice conflict skills daily,
and (c) all students must be taught peacemaking procedures so
that they can negotiate their interpersonal conflicts and mediate
the conflicts of schoolmates when necessary.
References
- Johnson, D. W., & Johnson, R. T. (1989). Cooperation
and competition: Theory and research. Edina, MN: Interaction
Book Company.
- Johnson, D. W., & Johnson, R. T. (1994). Leading
the cooperative school (2nd ed.). Edina, MN: Interaction
Book Company.
- Johnson, D. W., & Johnson, R. T. (1995). Creative
controversy: Intellectual challenge in the classroom (3rd
ed.). Edina, MN: Interaction Book Company.
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