Argumentation as/in/for dialogical relation: a case study from elementary school science

Abstract

Argumentation as a form of introducing children to science has received increasing attention over the past decade. Argumentation tends to be studied and theorized through the lens of individual speakers, who contribute to a conversation by means of opposing statements. M.M. Bakhtin and L.S. Vygotsky independently proposed a very different approach by suggesting that dialogical relations inherently and irreducibly embody argumentation. From this position, dialogical relations allow children to individualize argumentation. In this study, we show how the dialogical framework provides a very different, collective perspective on children’s argumentation in problem-solving processes in elementary science classrooms.

Keywords:

• argumentation
• dialogue
• problem posing
• solution finding
• Bakhtin
• Vygotsky

Acknowledgement

We are grateful to the teacher and all her children for their participation in this project. The responsibility for the content lies with us.

Notes

1. Vygotskij (2005) rejects analysis by elements and advocates unit analysis. His example of water to be analysed in terms of water molecules rather than in terms of its components, the elements hydrogen and oxygen, may serve as an analogy for conversation (water) that cannot be understood in terms of the contributions of its individual speakers (elements).

2. This is where our approach differs from, for example, Mortimer and Scott (2003), who are concerned with individual meaning and individual ideas, and who dichotomize the inside and outside of individuals (e.g., Roth, 2005). Moreover, in our approach talk is inherently shared rather than having to be constructed as such.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mijung Kim

Mijung Kim is an associate professor in science education at the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Victoria. Her research interests include decision making through dialogical argumentation and children’s collective reasoning and problem solving in elementary science classrooms. Her current publications include journal articles on inquiry-based teaching, collaborative problem solving, and decision making on socioscientific issues and book editions, Biology education for social and sustainable development (M. Kim & H.C. Diong, 2012, Sense Publisher) and Issues and challenges in science education research: Moving forward (D. Tan & M. Kim, 2012, Springer).

Wolff-Michael Roth

Wolff-Michael Roth is Lansdowne Professor of Applied Cognitive Science in the Faculty of Education at the University of Victoria. He researches cognition and learning across the lifespan in formal (school, university) and informal settings (workplace, hobbies, activism). He has been teaching, and writing about, quantitative and qualitative research methods. His recent publications include Meaning and mental representation: A pragmatic approach (2013), Curriculum*-in-the-making: A post-constructivist perspective (2014), and Graphing and uncertainty in the discovery sciences: With implications for STEM education (2015).