Arguing to learn: challenging a viewpoint with mystery quotations
Arguing to learn: challenging a viewpoint with mystery quotations
Ellis Parkman
What is the idea?
In a world less receptive to differing opinions, it is perhaps more important than ever to provide learners with a safe setting in which to learn how to argue effectively and professionally.
Mystery quotations allow learners to actively take charge of their learning during the research and verification stages. Moreover, students can pick aspects of the mystery quotes which resonate with them and shape their learning journey accordingly. This facilitates the opportunity for incidental learning (Kelly, 2012) to take place.
Mystery quotes can be run in a multitude of ways including with focus on research or soft skills. The activity ultimately allows learners to learn by doing (Gibbs, 1988), complementing the cyclical activities Gibbs discussed in his work. Through the use of mystery quotations learners are provided the opportunity to review a quote (analyse), form an argument, stance or viewpoint (action planning, feeling, evaluating, concluding) and finally report their findings or viewpoints back to the rest of the group of learners (describing, concluding).
While there are a number of ways one may wish to perform the mystery quotation activity, a common theme is withholding the origin of the quote, thus providing the ‘mystery’. The purpose of withholding this information is to allow learners to research the subject, ideally without bias, and to seek out more opinions and information than they are presented with via the mystery quotation, providing an opportunity to use and showcase an array of skills. Information on how you can adapt the scenario for research or for soft skills focus is detailed below.
Mystery quotations also provide the opportunity for learners to interact with each other on a personal level; amplifying their soft skills. This can be explicitly facilitated in asking learners to provide feedback on the experience after the activity has been completed. Question prompts from the teacher can assist, such as: ‘How difficult was it to professionally argue your point?’, ‘What did you enjoy / dislike during this process?’, or ‘What skills were you demonstrating as part of this process?’.
It is important to make sure quotes are direct and accurate, in-depth knowledge of the subject is not essential for learners, as this could be used as an activity to focus learners on new content as a flipped learning approach (Miedany, 2018).
Why this idea?
Mystery quotations can easily be adapted for any topic area and can generate and move conversations somewhat authentically, in line with the interests of the learners engaging with the topic.
Not only does this provide the opportunity for learners to grapple with their subject matter in a more practical manner, it facilitates the enhancement of soft skills. Learners have the freedom to present information in a manner which suits them, rather than a manner prescribed to them.
Additionally, learners are