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History, Civics & Social Studies · Grade 12

Evaluate Arguments and Conflicting Evidence

Public debates are full of arguments built on evidence of uneven quality. Learners dissect arguments with the Toulmin model, identify common fallacies, distinguish causal from correlational evidence, judge study quality, catch misleading statistics (relative versus absolute risk, percent versus percentage points, truncated graphs), and practise steelmanning. They apply these tools to a fictional city's debate over speed cameras near schools, where three studies disagree.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 140 minutes
  • Arguments and evidence check: 9 questions
  • Ways to answer: choose an answer, highlight a text, match pairs, type a number, sort into groups and true or false
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What learners will discover

  • Analyze arguments into claim, grounds, warrant, qualifier and rebuttal.
  • Identify common logical fallacies in civic arguments.
  • Evaluate evidence by distinguishing correlation from causation, judging study design and interpreting statistics accurately.
  • Weigh conflicting studies and steelman opposing positions on a policy question.

Lessons

  1. The structure of an argument 4 steps3 practiceabout 33 min
  2. Fallacies 4 steps3 practiceabout 34 min
  3. Evidence quality and statistics 5 steps4 practiceabout 37 min
  4. Conflicting studies and steelmanning 5 steps4 practiceabout 36 min
  5. Arguments and evidence check 9 questions at the end

Keep exploring

More 12th grade social studies

Guide for grown-ups