The Role of Requests
A very common statement type in this whole study is the Request. I wondered:
Are the Modified Claims and Alternate Claims spontaneous, or does a request initiate
them? I found that the answers to Requests may clarify a statement (“Meters?” “Yes,
meters.”) or may actually elicit an additional Modified Claim, Grounds, Warrants, and
Backings, or other support statements. Table 4-14 summarizes the results of Requests in
the 14 groups. The single phrase “What?” was interpreted as a request for clarification,
whereas “What force is acting?” was interpreted as a request for a claim.
Claim (C) Result of Request^ Frequency 23 %
Modified ClaimGrounds, Warrants, and Back (MC) ings (GWB) 16 % 16 %
Clarification (COther Support (Sp, Akl) , En) 29 % 16%(^) Table 4-14. Results of Requests
Noticeably absent from Table 4-14 is the Alternate Claim. The students do not
request another student to present a contradictory idea. This absence may be due to the
general tendency towards conflict avoidance in these groups. That is, the Alternate
Claims are spontaneous and unsolicited. Two examples will illustrate this point. In both
of these cases, the Alternate Claims were not directly solicited or requested. In Group 4B
(Table 4-15, p. 164) two members, LP and KJ, disagree with member JH over the
location of their origin of coordinates. JH’s initial Claim is incorrect and the result is the
spontaneous Challenge and then Alternate Claim in line 122.