This paper introduces the term "explorative mathematical argumentation" (EMA), signifying a concept for describing and analysing learners' mathematical argumentation processes. Despite multiple recent empirical evidence for argumentation promoting learning in science education, still little is known about the development of early…

In this article, the authors share the story of Diego, a kindergarten student, navigating issues of mathematical identity and competence--his own and those of his kindergarten classmates. The authors are a team of educators, including a kindergarten teacher (Sara) and a math teacher educator (Jody) who worked together on a quality improvement…

Given the need to educate future critical thinkers, it is necessary to explore preschool teachers' level of argumentation about socioscientific issues in order to facilitate their use of appropriate strategies for effective argumentation in their own classrooms. To achieve this aim, it is also necessary to propose the use of a set of previously…

In kindergarten, children are usually engaged with both verbal activities and non-verbal activities, often requiring the manipulation of physical objects. During technical tasks (e.g., problem solving), children can use argumentation as one of the languages of science that mediates how they interact with the surrounding world. In this paper, we…

In this study we investigated qualities of the mathematical discourse in four kindergarten classes in which kindergarten teachers and 5-year-old children engaged in mathematical learning activities. We analysed differences in the mathematical discourses in two experimental kindergarten classes and two control kindergarten classes, in a research…

Goal: The problem of the authenticity of teacher questions has not received sufficient attention from educational researchers interested in the intersection between dialogue and argumentation. In this paper, we adopt a definition of authentic questions as dialogical units that prompt teacher-student interactions that are both productive (i.e.,…

This paper examines the role of professionalism in teachers' change in practice related to dialogue and argumentation. Data were collected from 14 pre-primary and primary school teachers who participated in a professional development programme with an emphasis on promoting values such as tolerance, empathy, inclusion and social responsibility…

It is broadly admitted that social contexts of reasoning may prompt children and adolescents to improve the quality of their reasoning. However, it is not clear how this quality may be assessed when it comes to arguments expressed within oral interactions in diverse settings (whole-class or small-group discussions) by students of different ages…

Off You Go is a PK-12 mathematical routine that leverages children's home resources and assets to help students take a concept with which they have initial or informal understanding and explore and test its boundaries to support defining or estimating with precision. The authors provide a guide for how to adapt this routine to engage students at…

The research presented explores the negotiation of hegemonic masculinity through football in a group of school children between three and five years of age in a school in Spain. The article shows that in the construction of masculinity within the school, football plays an important role. In this sense, it shows how the playing of football created…

This study investigated the manner in which 56 infant educators used language to direct the behaviour of infants (defined as children aged birth to two years), on the basis that the ways in which educators frame their commands represent an important component of young children's learning experiences. Underpinned by systemic functional linguistic…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe the various ways in which a group of principals conceptualize the power basis of teachers within teacher-principal interactions. Design/methodology/approach: The present study takes power as a potential to influence people as it was conceptualized in the taxonomy developed by French and Raven…

In the context of joint decision-making, we investigated whether preschoolers alter the informativeness of their justifications depending on the common ground that they share with their partner. Pairs of 3- and 5-year-olds (N = 146) were introduced to a novel animal with unique characteristics (e.g., eating rocks). In the common ground condition,…

Due to the increase in the number of preschool-aged dual language learners (DLLs), there is a need to understand their language development and how to better support them. Although DLLs' language development has traditionally been studied from a structuralist perspective, few have examined their language use from a functional approach, which…

This study had two research purposes. First, we examined the scientific reasoning gains of prospective science teachers who are concrete, formal, and postformal reasoners in an argumentation-based physics inquiry instruction. Second, we sought conceptual knowledge and achievement gaps between these student groups before and after the instruction.…