IF ATHENA IS THE ANSWER, WHAT WAS THE QUESTION

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IF ATHENA IS THE ANSWER, WHAT WAS THE QUESTION?
Athena 2.0 is a software package supporting
reasoning and argumentation. It is integrated
with a variety of educational modules. Reasoning
and argumentation are involved in understanding
why a certain belief or explanation is
reasonable or why a course of action is
recommendable. They are applicable in all dynamic
and unsettled fields of knowledge and practice.
Reasoning and argumentation are arts rather than
science. They have long been taught as crafts in
educational settings similar to the elite
university. Mass universities are exposed to cost
pressures and a more varied recruitment of new
student groups. Within 10-15 years, the
traditional craft-oriented teachers will have
retired from the system. QUESTION Can the
present arts and crafts of reasoning and
argumentation be computerized, standardized and
taught to large and varied student groups by
teachers without anchorage in the traditional
craftish methods? Athena and similar programs are
parts of preliminary answers to that question.
They are necessary but not sufficient
conditions. The slight evidence there is
concerning teaching effects of such software is
highly promising.
Bertil Rolf BTH Charlotte Magnusson LTH Peter
Anderberg LTH www.athenasoft.org
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WORKING WITH ATHENA
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• 1. BUILD AN ARGUMENT TREE.
• Start with a conclusion.
• Add premises and premises of premises.
• The result is an argument tree.
• 2. EVALUATE THE TREE STEP BY STEP.
• Assign acceptability to premise nodes.
• Assign relevance to connections of logical
  relations.
• 3. FILTER AWAY YOUR WORST PREMISES.
• Pull the filter lever to set the threshold.
• Your worst premise nodes and their connections
  disappear.
• 4. REPORT.
• The report wizard delivers a HTML-report for
  handouts or import and elaboration in word
  processors.
• The .ath-file can be sent to teachers, students
  or colleagues.

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USES AND USERS OF ATHENA

• The Lonely Thinker
• Solving a hairy intellectual or practical puzzle
  
• Sorting our the pros and the cons of a complex
  issue
• Reasoning in the Republic of Learning students
  and teachers
• Intensive text reading of scientific or
  philosophical reasoning
• Teaching text-analytic techniques in computer
  lab
• Computer aided seminars of text interpretation
• Commenting and correcting student home work
• Computer supported presentations of state-of-art
  lectures
• Civic reasoning
• Public oratory and public debate
• Grass root political schooling
• Professional context
• Qualitative decision making
• Counselling

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HOW AND WHY DOES ATHENA WORK?

• All texts are mainly linear in time (speech) or
  in space (writing).
• All arguments rely on a non-linear underlying
  structure. Such structure is hierarchical and
  recursive and therefore often complex.
• Understanding arguments of others is notoriously
  difficult. Students have considerable difficulty
  in extracting argument structures from texts.
• Grasping complexity holistically is not feasible.
  Mans ability to survey the interaction of
  elements in complex issues is normally very
  limited.
• Athena graphs enable analysis and synthesis of
  complex, qualitative issues.
• Athena building process and the resulting trees
  are observable. Students and professionals can
  experiment and teachers or supervisors can give
  direct feedback.
• Athena analysis procedures enable smooth
  transition from linear texts to hierarchical
  structure.
• Athena synthesis module enable smooth transition
  from hierarchical structure to linear
  presentations integrating graphs and text.

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ITERATED TEST- AND DEVELOPMENT PROCEDURE
1999 Applet. Text container
2000 Multiwindow application
2001 Filter and reporting
Test in 8 classes. 160 students. From beginners
to postgraduates and adult learners
Student evaluation 65 claim to learn better, 1
worse than with traditional methods
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ATHENA COMPARED

• Two technically and educationally mature
  programs ReasonAble (Melbourne) and Athena
  (Ronneby and Lund).
• Considerable similarities due to influence from
  argument diagrams in teaching tradition and
  Windows standard. Athena distinguishes between
  the name and the content of the argument and can
  hold large amounts of text.
• The concepts and technical functions in building
  and evaluating programs are similar. ReasonAble
  classifies type of support. Athena filters away
  the worst premises.
• ReasonAble has been tested thoroughly on large
  groups of students and with considerable
  educational improvement in their reasoning
  capacity. Athena has been tested in various
  courses mainly aiming for functional
  improvements.
• ReasonAble is designed as support for specific
  courses in critical thinking. It contains an
  advisor to steer students working process.
  Athena is designed for general use in professions
  and in higher education. Athena output reports
  can be used for memoranda, handouts or word
  processing.
• ReasonAble assumes that students learn
  argumentation by a multitude of varying tasks.
  Athena assumes that student learn by fewer,
  larger and realistic tasks integrating
  preparation, oral enactment and post performance
  analysis.