Analysing argumentation episodes

A case study from physics teacher education

Abstract

We discuss here how domain-specific argumentation and skills related to it can form part of learning science in higher education. In this study, we analyse pre-service physics teachers written reports (N=36). We introduce here four argumentative elements and propose how they can be used to analyse physics knowledge argumentation. The analysis allows us to detect how pre-service teachers combine argumentative elements in their explanations and consider what is the logical order of the appearance of argumentation episodes. Results show that the analysis method based on argumentative episodes reveal relevant differences in pre-service physics teachers’ argumentation and its structure. We conclude by discussing how explicit teaching of argument construction may help pre-service teachers to improve their abilities to construct logical arguments.