Abstract
Despite the growing number of ITSs for teaching argumentation, few tutors actually debate the student. An intelligent debater allows the student to practice argumentation and provides the motivation to analyze evidence. Here I describe an intelligent debater used in Policy World to argue with students about policy recommendations. The intelligent debater forces the student to recommend a policy intervention, to describe how the intervention affects the desired policy outcomes, and to provide evidence. The debater then attacks infeasible recommendations, implausible mechanisms, and weak evidence. Key aspects of the intelligent debater algorithm are presented for those interested in using intelligent debaters in science, law, and history.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Walton, D.: Fundamentals of critical argumentation. Cambridge University Press, New York (2006)
Scheuer, O., McLaren, B.M., Loll, F., Pinkwart, N.: Automated analysis and feedback techniques to support argumentation: A survey. In: Pinkwart, N., McLaren, B. (eds.) Educational technologies for teaching argumentation skills. Bentham Science Publishers, Oak Park (in press)
Britt, M.A., Aglinskas, C.: Improving students’ ability to identify and use source information. Cognition & Instruction 20(4), 485–522 (2002)
Forbus, K.D., Carney, K., Sherin, B.L., Ureel, L.C.: Vmodel: A visual qualitative modeling environment for middle-school students. AI Magazine 26(3), 63–72 (2005)
Graesser, A.C., Wiley, J., Goldman, S.R., O’Reilly, T., Jeon, M., McDaniel, B.: SEEK web tutor: Fostering a critical stance while exploring the causes of volcanic eruption. Metacognition and Learning 2, 89–105 (2007)
Leelawong, K., Biswas, G.: Designing learning by teaching agents: The Betty’s Brain system. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education 18(3), 181–208 (2008)
Masterman, L.: A knowledge-based coach for reasoning about historical causation. In:J. Breuker et al. (series eds.) Looi, C.K., McCalla, G., Bredeweg, B., Breuker, J. (vol. eds.) Frontiers in artificial intelligence and applications. Artificial intelligence in education: Supporting learning through intelligent and socially informed technology, vol. 125, pp. 435–442. IOS Press, Amsterdam (2005)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Easterday, M.W. (2010). An Intelligent Debater for Teaching Argumentation. In: Aleven, V., Kay, J., Mostow, J. (eds) Intelligent Tutoring Systems. ITS 2010. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 6095. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-13437-1_24
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-13437-1_24
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-13436-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-13437-1
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)