MATHEMATICAL TOOLS IN ENGINEERING STUDENTS' DECISION-MAKING

In this paper we investigate students' argumentation in an authentic activity. The two main theoretical constructs used in our work in order to capture mathematical elements in students' argumentation process is Leont'ev's three-tiered explanation of activity and Toulmin's framework as a structural model to analyse students' arguments. The main dataset for which detailed analysis was conducted were transcripts of students' meetings and students' e-mail communication. The results of this study indicate that students in ill-structured activities use mathematical tools (processes and concepts) and produce coherent arguments.