SIG 20 & 26 Conference 2024

SIG 26 Keynote: Think and think about thinking: The power of developing argumentive and meta-level reasoning in confronting the challenges of today's world

The dominance of emerging technologies in our lives have imposed new challenges to making informed judgments and have greatly increased the importance of understanding the mechanisms that influence people’s judgments and behaviours. There is a pressing need to find ways to re-empower humans' thinking and safeguard the democratic foundations of our societies which are at stake.

In this talk, the challenges to reasoning posed by interacting with the world wide web are considered, drawing from empirical studies, network analysis and focus groups. It will be argued that to promote sound reasoning, evidential standards and public trust in science, a multidimensional approach is needed. Epistemic beliefs and reasoning of key actors involved in knowledge production and its dissemination – such as journalists, scientists, AI developers – all matter.

To deal with these challenges we should invest in supporting individuals’ argumentive reasoning and the metacognitive competencies that support it. A line of research is presented demonstrating that engagement in purposeful discourse, along with reflection, is a promising path to support the development of reasoning, reflection on it, epistemic standards, and metacognitive control of one’s own beliefs. The gains observed encompass both argument construction and argument evaluation. Findings from microgenetic studies are discussed that provide insights on the mechanism of change. Engagement in argumentation as a path to developing epistemic understanding is emphasized in new research findings involving reconciliation of divergent claims on controversial issues.

With rapidly changing technology, investing in empowering human thinking — to set strong evidential standards when deciding what to believe and who to trust, to acquire epistemic vigilance and engage in metacognitive control of one’s thinking and beliefs — both online and offline, is probably our best bet to safeguard individual and societal well-being.

Joint Keynote: Reclaiming Autonomy Online: Critical Ignoring and Other Tools for Navigating Digital Challenges

The widespread dissemination of attention-grabbing and manipulative content, including false and misleading information, has become a global problem requiring urgent solutions. This issue is not only a policy challenge—given the risks social media poses to public health, mental well-being, and the integrity of democracies—but also a significant challenge for education. Traditional approaches to critical thinking, developed in an era far less saturated with information, are now being tested in unprecedented ways. Social media, in particular, creates conditions that demand the development of new resistance practices and competencies. In this talk, I will explore the essential tools and skills needed to empower citizens to combat online misinformation and manipulation, and to reclaim their autonomy in attention-driven information environments. I will specifically focus on the competence of critical ignoring and a toolbox of individual-level interventions against misinformation

SIG 20 Keynote: The Role of Adaptive Prompts and Hints in Guiding Simulation-Based Scientific Inquiry Learning

Although there is strong evidence that learners with low prior knowledge need substantial guidance during the inquiry process, more research is required to determine the characteristics of the guidance that should be provided during scientific inquiry. Is it best to guide learners with a limited suite of fundamental scientific inquiry prompts that are given as needed? Or should we provide more fulsome guidance that, in addition to the prompts, follows the learner at every step to also provide hints and confirmatory feedback? As part of an experiment that had learners manipulate a DC electricity simulation to develop their qualitative understanding of Ohm’s and Kirchhoff’s laws, my research group developed 38 scripted prompts along with the specific conditions under which each prompt would be given by a human tutor. The participants were randomly assigned to receive either minimal guidance with no adaptive prompts (Control group), scripted adaptive prompts (Prompt group), or the same scripted adaptive prompts with the addition of hints and confirmatory feedback (PromptPlus group). Learning outcomes were assessed by a posttest and the behaviors of tutors and learners were coded from videos made of each session. The purpose of the research is to develop tutoring principles and heuristics to inform the development of AI-based tutoring systems for simulation-based inquiry learning. Beyond the effects of the experimental interventions, the timing, frequency, and qualities of the individual prompts and hints – and the learners’ responses to them – can tell us much about how to design within-task guidance for inquiry activities.