ChatGPT-assisted collaborative argumentation: Effects of role-playing prompts on students’ argumentation outcomes, processes, and perceptions

Abstract

In traditional collaborative argumentation activities, students often struggle to present arguments from diverse perspectives. ChatGPT is capable of understanding user prompts and generating corresponding responses, and it can play different roles with diverse backgrounds to argue with students, creating the possibility of promoting the quality of their argumentation. However, to make ChatGPT’s responses work well for argumentation, students need to give appropriate prompts. Therefore, this study proposed the role-playing prompt-based ChatGPT-assisted Collaborative Argumentation (CaCA) approach, and a quasi-experiment was conducted to examine its effects on students’ argumentation outcomes, processes, and perceptions. Sixty-six first-year graduate students engaged in this experiment: the experimental group adopted the role-playing prompt-based CaCA approach, while the control group adopted the conventional CaCA approach. Results showed that the role-playing prompt-based CaCA approach broadened students’ perspectives in their arguments and increased the connections between data and claims, forming the chain of arguments centered on warrant and backing in their discourse. However, it did not significantly enhance their ability to edit ideas deeply or increase their willingness to give rebuttals. This research provides new insights into the application of ChatGPT in a micro-level collaborative argumentation context.

Keywords

• chatgpt in education
• generative artificial intelligence
• educational prompt engineering
• chatbot
• epistemic network analysis