Introduction :
Argumentation constitutes an important dimension of daily life and of professional activities. It also plays a special role in democracies and is at the heart of philosophical reasoning and scientific inquiry. Argumentation has an increasing importance in education, not only because it is an important competence that has to be learned, but also because argumentation can be used to foster learning in philosophy, history, sciences and mathematics, and in many other domains. During the last decade, argumentation has attracted growing attention as a linguistic, logical, dialogical, and psychological process that sustains or provokes reasoning and learning.
As a means of improving students’ understanding in the classroom, argumentation can be called upon to trigger learning in many ways. Argumentative practices involve making explicit and public one’s own stance and justifying it to another person or to oneself. Argumentation allows for explorative, critical and enquiring approaches to reality: encouraged to test the validity of each other’s ideas, the learners are led to formulate objections and counter-objections and to understand a multiplicity of positions. Argumentative practices in science education are interesting because they invite pupils to use and come to understand rules of reasoning that are used in scientific work: pupils search for reasons, examine the available data, test alternative hypotheses, etc., which allows them to discover that science is more about trying to construct and resolve problems in specific theoretical frames than a matter of “discovering” things that might have been hidden since the beginning of the world.
As a means of improving students’ understanding in the classroom, argumentation can be called upon to trigger learning in many ways. Argumentative practices involve making explicit and public one’s own stance and justifying it to another person or to oneself. Argumentation allows for explorative, critical and enquiring approaches to reality: encouraged to test the validity of each other’s ideas, the learners are led to formulate objections and counter-objections and to understand a multiplicity of positions. Argumentative practices in science education are interesting because they invite pupils to use and come to understand rules of reasoning that are used in scientific work: pupils search for reasons, examine the available data, test alternative hypotheses, etc., which allows them to discover that science is more about trying to construct and resolve problems in specific theoretical frames than a matter of “discovering” things that might have been hidden since the beginning of the world.
This is in contrast with students and laypersons’ preconceptions. It implies that confrontation of perspectives is “fair-play” and that submitting to majority world views, prejudices, or status does not contribute to knowledge construction. Argumentative practices are powerful resources to deal with cognitive contradictions, doubts, controversies, complex decisions, etc. They invite participants to engage both in reasoning and in search of information. They require participants to coordinate their actions and reflections and to experiment with a reflexive position that enhances decentration capacities. Because learning does not solely mean acquisition of information or the appropriation of ready-made objects of knowledge, argumentation also entails the emergence of new understandings and the creative restructuring of previous ones: the learner is the co-author of a constructive socio-cognitive process in which argumentation holds important functions.
Argumentation is thus of interest to researchers and practitioners in education who are concerned with the social and cognitive processes that promote learning. However, learning argumentation and learning by arguing raises theoretical and methodological questions: How and when do learning processes develop in argumentation? Is it the case for all subjects? How does one design effective argumentative activities? How can the argumentative efforts of pupils be sustained? What are the psychological issues involved when arguing with others? How can what the learners produce be analyzed and evaluated? The argumentative activity requires specific intellectual and social skills and it is often emotional and demanding. Introducing argumentative activities in educational settings is not yet common. It requires attention at different levels. The complex argumentation skills must be given opportunities to develop in the growing child. At the interpersonal level, argumentation means confronting other people’s perspectives. People often avoid these kinds of situations, which they tend to perceive as a risk to the self and to the relationship. At the institutional level, argumentative activities are sometimes considered time consuming when curricula are already overloaded. These activities require special social skills from the teachers, as well as ad hoc teacher training and assessment practices. At the cultural level, argumentation means the acceptance that social harmony is not threatened by the expression of a plurality of opinions; that assertions have to be backed up; that authority is not sufficient; and that discussions are permitted even when relationships are asymmetrical.
Title : Argumentation and Education: Theoretical Foundations and Practices
author(s) : Nathalie Muller Mirza, Anne-Nelly Perret-Clermont (auth.), Nathalie Muller Mirza, Anne-Nelly Perret-Clermont (eds.)
size : 1.5 Mb
file type : pdf
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