Developing Argumentation: Lessons Learned in the Primary School

Abstract

In this chapter, I argue three main points: first, that one of the most important aims of education ought to be to develop children’s capability for argumentation; secondly, that teachers can make a significant contribution to this development; and thirdly, that the development of children’s use of language as a tool for argumentation helps the development of their individual intellectual capabilities. To do so, I first discuss the importance of children’s engagement in dialogue for the development of their thinking and understanding. I then consider education as a dialogic process, in which both the talk between teachers and learners and the talk amongst learners have important roles to play. Finally, I describe some classroom-based research which has enabled teachers to encourage the development of children’s use of spoken language for thinking and arguing effectively together, and which has also provided empirical support for the relationship between thought, language and social activity claimed by the Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky.