https://doi.org/10.24552/00002202 ©青森県立保健大学
An Attempt to Analyze the “Structure of Argumentation” in Group Discussion Using Co-occurrence Networks
（Diploma Policy;“The Ability to Improve Yourself” Evaluation Report Ⅲ)
Naoko Hiromori, Masashi Yamada, Yutaka Asada, Kie Kawauchi, Sangun Lee, Mellisa Ogasawara
and Harumi Kadohama
Aomori University of Health and Welfare
（Recieved March 18, 2022; Accepted November 14, 2022）
ABSTRACT
［Objective］
To extract and examine the “structure of the discussion” using co-occurrence network analysis in order
to qualitatively understand whether the group discussion is structured as a discussion.
［Methods］Students were randomly selected from first-year and fourth-year university students,
and four groups were created; two first-year and two fourth-year. One group from each year level
received a guide for discussion, and the others did not. All groups discussed the theme of “installation
of surveillance cameras” for 45 minutes. Four co-occurrence networks were created from the verbatim
recordings of the audio data, and the “structure of the discussion” was examined by comparing the four
groups.
［Results］To compare the “structure of the discussion” among the four groups, we created a base
cooccurrence network structure, a co-occurrence network structure tagged with the role of the speaker,
another tagged with the speaker, and a co-occurrence network structure showing at what stage of the
argumentation the association occurred.
［Conclusions］The structure of the co-occurrence network was used to interpret whether the
discussion the students were having was in fact a discussion. In the first-year unguided group,
each speaker expressed their own opinion or idea, but it did not lead to a discussion. Even in the
first-year guided group, where a short, simple guide was given, only a glimpse of discussion was
observed. In contrast, in the fourth-year group with a guide, there was an abundance of utterances
to which all speakers responded, which could be interpreted as evidence of discussion. The results
of this study suggest that a “discussion with structure” was achieved due to the effects of the
discussion guide and knowledge gained over four years at university.
Key words: Group Discussions, Structure of Discussion, Co-occurrence Networks