The Development of Students’ Mathematical Argumentation in a Primary Classroom

Abstract: The use of valid argument does not come naturally. It is acquired only through practice. This study was accomplished to provide students intended opportunities of engaging activities for launching argumentation in primary classrooms. The focus of the paper is how argumentation was evolved when students engaged in the conjecturing incorporated into regular mathematics instruction over two consecutive years. Working with a group of 6 teachers was to develop conjecturing tasks and pedagogical strategies to support them in teaching, and then to enhance the quality of students’ argumentation when 24 students were in grades 3 and 4. The collected data mainly consisted of conjecturing tasks, audio - and video - taped recordings of classroom observations, and students’ worksheets. Results indicate that the evolution of argumentation was identified in two aspects: the characteristics and the quality of the argumentation.摘要：有效论证（valid argument）的运用并非与生俱来的能力，唯有通过实践方能习得。本研究旨在为小学生提供参与小学课堂论证（argumentation）活动的实践契机。本文的研究重点为：在连续两年的教学周期中，将猜想（conjecturing）活动融入常规数学教学的情境下，学生的论证能力是如何演进的。研究团队与6名教师合作，开发猜想类教学任务与教学策略以支撑其教学实践，最终在面向24名三、四年级学生的教学中提升学生的论证质量。本研究收集的数据主要包括：猜想类任务资料、课堂观察的音视频录像，以及学生作业单。研究结果显示，论证能力的演进可从两个维度得以体现：论证的特征与论证的质量。