Hi Enbo,

From my experience, the first step teaching and learning the skills of argumentation is to understand how arguments are structured. The second step is to get into plenty of arguments. 

Two books on argumentation theory to that I've used with some success in my classes are:

Booth, W. C., Colomb, G. G., & Williams, J. M. (2008). The craft of research (3rd ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Toulmin, S., Rieke, R., & Janik, A. (1984). An introduction to reasoning (2nd ed.). New York: Macmillan.

The tricky thing is that these books are generally aimed at creating arguments in essays, papers, dissertations and so on, and it is not immediately obvious how argumentation theory can used to support people to create designs. Last year I published a conference paper that reports on how I used Toulmin's argumentation theory to structure a human-centred design process.

Feast, L., & Blijlevens, J. (2014). Mixed method research procedure for design education. Paper presented at the NordDesign 2014 'Creating Together', Espoo, Finland / Melbourne, Australia. 

If you (or anyone) is interested, I can send you a copy of the paper if you email me offlist. 

Best, 
Luke

Luke Feast 
Postdoctoral Researcher
Aalto yliopisto / Aalto University 
Taiteiden ja suunnittelun korkeakoulu / School of Arts, Design and Architecture
Muotoilun laitos / Department of design 
PL 31000 / PO BOX 31000 00076 Aalto, Finland
Hämeentie 135 C, Helsinki, Finland
 
+358 50 400 7385 
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Mixed method research procedure for design education

Abstract

We address the need to provide rigorous research training within design education by presenting a methodology for utilizing both qualitative data and quantitative data within an integrated research procedure. Rigorous research training is needed because many of today’s designers work on socially and politically complex problems that traditionally were framed as technical problems. Consequently, designers require training in applied social and behavioural science research to address bias and test their ideas before implementing them. In our view, such research training can be successfully supported through designers learning to construct sound and strong arguments for their designs. To illustrate our argument we provide a proposal for a research methods course for addressing human-centred design aimed at undergraduate design education.


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