Can Argumentation be Taught in School?

Abstract

Deanna Kuhn’s book Building our Best Future: Thinking Critically About Ourselves and Our World is a practical handbook aimed at imparting the skill of argumentation among school children and thereby improving their abilities of scientific thinking and inquiry. It is intended as an effective teaching tool to equip teachers and students with the 21st-century skills which are to be incorporated into the pedagogy of science in today’s schools. Argumentation has been a topic of teaching interest for at least centuries before the common era. Most prominently, ancient Greek philosopher, Socrates is said to have practised argumentative dialogues with his students. The Socratic methods of questioning and dialogues with questions to find answers to bring about critical thinking are well-known [1]. As Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen has pointed out, the long history of the argumentative tradition in India and its contemporary relevance are being neglected in the Indian cultural discussions [2]. At present, argumentation is rarely practised in science classrooms in India, since science teachers are busy getting through the syllabus, and because they are not trained to handle argumentative dialogues with students.