Secondary school mathematics teacher-perceived factors involved in argumentation: an emerging framework

ABSTRACT

Our research focuses on ways teachers envision argumentation in their secondary mathematics classrooms. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 31 secondary school mathematics teachers in Israel. They were asked to envisage a hypothetical classroom dialogue focusing on mathematical tasks which would engage their students in some argumentative activity. Analysis of the teachers’ responses identified categories related to both structural and dialogic aspects associated with three dimensions of argumentation: (1) task characteristics, (2) teaching strategies, and (3) students’ characteristics. From a cross-analysis of the teachers’ statements certain categories appeared more frequently than others. We interpret our results from a theoretical and practical perspective and make recommendations for areas of future research.

KEYWORDS:

• Argumentation
• mathematics teachers’ envisioning of argumentation
• factors involved in mathematics classroom argumentation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).