Diversity of Argumentative Processes and the Construction of a Culture of Argumentation in two Science Classrooms

This study aims to understand aspects of the construction of a classroom culture that foster argumentation by contrasting argumentative processes in two different middle-school classrooms. We adopted tools from interactional ethnography, and we adapted elements of the Theory of Argumentation Pragma-Dialects. We conducted participant observation with records in field notes and video. The results evidenced that the construction of a culture that foster argumentation occurs over time and it involves diverse argumentative processes. In both classrooms we observed that the forms that teachers interacted with students contributed to promote differences of opinion, and, hence, they supported a culture of argumentation. Students’ forms of participation also contributed to the variation in argumentation because they interacted with the teacher, as well as, with their peers. The study has potential to contribute to teachers’ practice and teacher education, as well as to advance our understandings about the diversity of argumentation processes.