Diversity of meanings of argument: need the need of teacher training

Abstract

We present an analysis of how prospective mathematics teachers identify their own arguments to solve a geometric conjecture problem. This analysis, based on our conceptual proposal of argument, resulted in an emergent coding that revealed diverse meanings of argument. These are differentiated by their communicative intent, which includes description, narration and enunciation of conjectures or rules of mathematical work. The results indicate that practices such as recognising the nature of an argument, identifying its constituent elements and establishing functional relationships between arguments require specialised training even in learning environments that promote argumentation.