DESIGN FOR SUPPORTING DIALECTICAL CONSTRUCTIVIST LEARNING ACTIVITIES Yu Wu 1 , Patrick C. Shih 1 , John M. Carroll 1 1 College of Information Sciences and Technology, Penn State University Abstract Dialectical constructivism considers that the source of knowledge comes from constant and complex interactions between the evolving individual and the developing environment (Moshman, 1982). Dialectical constructivism informs dialectical learning pedagogy, where students constantly interact with each other in developing and refining arguments over an issue from multiple perspectives. With the advancement of the Internet, it is possible to design dialectical learning activities with technologies that can be seamlessly integrated into curriculum and facilitate learning. In this paper, we designed a prototype of a dialectical learning system, CriticalThinker, that engages students with dialectical constructivist activities, with technology affordances such as anchoring the group discussion on top of screen to serve as a reference for following discussions, displaying multiple arguments in one screen, and visualizing relationships among the arguments as a structured way for students to argue with each other. We also presented the application scenarios of the system in order to concretize the features and the affordances of CriticalThinker. Keywords: dialectical learning, design-based research, scenario-based design 1 BACKGROUND Dialectical learning has existed for thousands of years, in which the development of dialectic is considered as the source of knowledge (. Historically, dialectics were used among a group of people holding different perspectives over an issue to reach consensus and to develop the truth of matter (Plato, 1987). Modern educational researchers and practitioners also consider the development of dialectics among students to be an effective way of engaging students to learn with and from their peers (O’Donnell, 2012). Modern dialectical learning pedagogy is derived from dialectical constructivism, which is a thread of constructivists’ worldview of how knowledge is acquired (Moshman, 1982). Dialectical constructivists believe that only by constant interacting with the environment/context of where learning happens can one obtain knowledge (Moshman, 1982). This perspective informs the following principles for organizing dialectical learning activities: 1) knowledge is actively constructed by learners themselves, rather than passed along by instructors; 2) the active interactions among students are important; 3) learning requires a suitable context and environment (Fosnot 1996; Harris & Graham, 1994). To illustrate this, consider a fictional example of dialectical learning of a debate over the issues brought by “Big Data” – does big data bring good or evil? One group of students could enumerate the benefits that come long with big data, such as how big data can facilitate understanding users’ needs precisely in order for service providers to be able to offer users what they want exactly, and how big data can help intelligent agency to detect potential terrorist attach. Another student group could then respond with counter arguments accordingly, such as how big data also produces privacy concerns, in which users do not know who might be surveilling their private activities in online space. Other such pro and con points could be expressed and discussed among peer students. In this way, students could develop their own understanding over an issue and be exposed to multiple perspectives, which enriches their understanding of the context and enhances their ability to consider an issue from varying aspects. Educational technologies have been investigated in a plethora of contexts and reported to be effective in various ways in helping learning. Oliver and Omari (1999) found that applying online technologies for problem-based learning facilitates students’ engagement in learning and provides positive learning outcomes. Du and colleagues (2009, 2012) designed and investigated backchannel in classroom settings and found that the technology influences the feeling of sociality within the classroom. Some researchers have explored possible technologies to support a learning pedagogy that is similar to