Supporting critical thinking in schools: Exploring the relationship between academic language, argumentation, and civic engagement

Supporting critical thinking in schools: Exploring the relationship between academic language, argumentation, and civic engagement.
Making cogent arguments about contested social issues is not easy. Argumentation requires knowledge of the facts, the ability to support claims with evidence, and the ability to anticipate and refute competing arguments. Using data from a large randomized trial of the Word Generation program, Dr. Lawrence and colleagues have shown there are unequal opportunities for students to engage in classroom discussion and that such debate is essential for self-reported civic engagement and the development of academic language. Recently, Dr. Lawrence has shown that academic language is associated with complex reasoning in student writing about social issues and reading comprehension.

Academic Website: http://readingresearch.info/

Born in BC, Josh taught in Taiwan and Boston Public Schools for 13 years. He studied at Boston University, completed his postdoctoral training at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and was tenured as an associate professor at the University of California. He is currently a professor at the University of Olso and works with schools in Canada and the US with the Reading Ways project.

This event is hosted by Dr. Guofang Li, Professor, Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Transnational/Global Perspectives of Language and Literacy Education of Children and Youth.

We would like to acknowledge that this event takes place on the traditional, unceded, occupied, and ancestral homelands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) First Nation.