How university professors foster argumentation in their teaching processes and how their students respond. A case study

ABSTRACT

To strengthen the professional development of its science university professors with academic assignments in scientific careers, a Colombian higher education institution commissioned the design of a six-month training programme. The aim was to help professors change their teaching practices toward more student-centred models. The purpose of this study was to analyse the extent to which professors, through the design and development of argumentative activities, achieve argumentative participation among their students. The authors developed the cases with three professors, recorded the classroom dialogues and analysed them with the Atlas.ti 7.0 program. Frequencies of student participation and of professors promoting participation were estimated. Argumentative student participation takes time to develop. It is also observed that student participation is largely subordinated to what professors elicit from their students; therefore, there is a lack of student participation – whether argumentative or nonargumentative – if the professor cannot promote it.

KEYWORDS:

• Argumentation
• classroom dialogues
• teacher professional development
• university professors
• teaching model

Acknowledgments

We thank the Asociación Universitaria Iberoamericana de Postgrado (AUIP), the Department of Economics and Knowledge of the Junta of Andalucía and Universidad Antonio Nariño for financing the stay of one of the paper’s authors.

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alicia Benarroch Benarroch

Alicia Benarroch Benarroch holds a PhD in Chemistry from Universidad de Granada (Spain), where she has been a member of the Department of Experimental Sciences Didactics since 1988. She has been Dean of the School of Education and Humanities of Melilla. Her research has been mainly related to science teaching, where she has published numerous books and articles, which have provided her with three sections of research acknowledged by the Spanish National Commission for Research Evaluation (CNEAI). In this area, she has directed six doctoral dissertations (and two in progress) and numerous research and master’s projects.

John Jairo Briceño Martinez

John Jairo Briceño-Martínez holds a PhD in Education from Universidad de Granada (Spain). He is currently Dean of the School of Education at the Universidad Antonio Nariño (UAN). He is also advisor to the Education Room of the Ministry of Education of Colombia. He has directed numerous Master’s in Education dissertations and is the author of several scientific articles in the field of education, which have been related to the training of higher education teachers.