ABSTRACT
The past two decades have witnessed growing interest in argumentation for educational purposes. Based on distinctions made by several theorists (van Eemeren et al, 1996; Walton, 2006), argumentation is defined here as a social activity in which interlocutors attempt to strengthen or weaken the acceptability of one or more ideas, views, or solutions through engagement in reasoning. Researchers in several domains of the psychological and educational literature have recognized that argumentation may serve important functions in learning and development and should therefore receive a more prominent role in classroom activities. For example, science educators have identified argumentation to lie at the basis of scientific inquiry, thinking and practice and have called for a more prominent role of argumentation in science classroom activities (e.g., Driver et al, 2000; Duschl & Osborne, 2002; Erduran & Jimenez-Aleixandre, 2007; Osborne, 2010). Research in developmental and educational psychology has shown that participation in dialogical argumentation can improve students’ critical reasoning skills (e.g., Frijters et al, 2008; Kuhn, 1999; Reznitskaya et al, 2001). Finally, there is accumulating evidence that under certain conditions participation in argumentation can also support the learning of complex academic content (e.g., Asterhan & Schwarz, 2007; 2009a; De Vries, Lund & Baker, 2002; Nussbaum & Sinatra, 2003; Schwarz et al, 2000). In the present chapter, I will mainly focus on the latter category, that is: the role of argumentation in knowledge building.
