Argumentation Analysis for Early Career Researchers

Proving processes in mathematics classrooms follow their own peculiar rationale, which raises the question of how to reconstruct and analyse the complex argumentative structures that arise in classroom discussion. In this chapter we describe a method of analysis of argumentation processes in the mathematics class, following the structure of our workshop at the ICME-13 Early Career Researcher Day. The method builds on Toulmin's theory of argumentation (Toulmin 1958) and allows the description of both global argumentation structures and local argumentations. A three stage process is followed: reconstructing the sequencing and meaning of classroom talk; analysing local argumentations and global argumentation structures; and finally comparing these argumentation structures and revealing their rationale. The second stage involves two moves, first analysing local arguments on the basis of Toulmin's functional model of argumentation, and second analysing the global argumentative structure of the proving process. We provide an example of the use of the method to analyse a transcript from a mathematics classroom.