Understanding Elementary Students’ Emergent Dialogical Argumentation in Science

Abstract

This paper explores the use of Engle and Conant's (2002) theoretical framework of productive disciplinary engagement to describe a group of fifth-graders' emergent dialogical argumentation about a rocky seashore ecosystem that was triggered by fieldwork activities. Engle and Conant's theoretical framework was mapped onto Weinberger and Fischer's (2006) multi-dimensional conceptual framework for CSCL-based argumentation in order to guide the selection of analytical approaches that would holistically assess students' argumentation along four dimensions (i.e. participation, formal argumentative structure, social modes of co- construction of knowledge and epistemic reasoning). The application of these complementary analyses enabled the exploration of the effects of the different dimensions and the identification of instances of students' more productive argumentation of Science ideas in the Knowledge Forum (KF) platform.