Fostering argumentative knowledge construction through enactive role play in Second Life

This paper examines how pre-university students shared and constructed knowledge in the context of GP (general paper) by interacting through individual virtual characters across five cycles of enactive role play sessions. Contextualized scenarios on the topic of euthanasia were developed in Second Life. Role-playing the virtual characters through three-dimensional avatars, 45 students from two different classes grappled and dealt with issues related to euthanasia such as ethics, morality, and religion. The enactment log transcripts of 10 student groups across five enactment sessions were analyzed using an adapted collaborative argumentation framework. We present the results from two types of data analysis: a macro quantitative analysis of students’ enactment log transcripts and a qualitative analysis of their open-ended responses. Our quantitative analysis at the class level revealed salient differences in the nature of epistemic interactions, the patterns of argumentative moves, and the patterns of social interactions between students from two classes. The findings from the qualitative analysis of students’ open-ended responses indicate that students valued the embodied experience afforded by the immersive virtual environment. We discuss the findings of our research in terms of important pedagogical implications and the factors that influence argumentative knowledge sharing and constructing activities.