| Abstrakt: |
It is common to find in the specialized literature that argumentation has the main function of justifying an assertion (Mohammed, 2016) in order to convince an audience. However, since argumentation presents specificities related to the context in which it is developed, more nuanced functions have been suggested. For instance, De Villiers (1990) points out that within mathematics demonstration --a particular form of argumentation-- can also have the functions of explaining, discovering, systematizing and communicating. Other functions of argumentation have been suggested in relation to mathematical practice and its learning but the field lacks a systematic approach. The need arises to investigate argumentation from a functional perspective, starting with a systematic review of the literature. For this purpose, we ask ourselves the following question: what are the functions of argumentation that have been identified in Argumentation Theory and Mathematics Education literature? We conducted a grounded theory literature review encompassing both fields. We retrieved articles indexed in WoS and SCOPUS that included the terms "function* of argument*" or "function* of proof*" in the title, abstract or keywords, and considered the semantically related terms use, role, aim, purpose and goal. After excluding off-topic texts the search yielded 297 articles; 74 of which focus on the functional aspect of argumentation as its main research object and 223 address the topic indirectly. The initial results show that: (i) there is still no consensus regarding what the main function of argumentation is and whether there are other functions of argumentation beyond justification; ii) the justifying function of argumentation plays a predominant role within argumentation theory, but in the school context it does not have such a predominance, suggesting the need to generate a link between practice and theory; and iii) there is scant evidence regarding the study of the functional aspect of argumentation in mathematics teachers education. The result is part of an ongoing PhD project aims at presenting a comprehensive and systematic picture of the various approaches to the topic as a base both to inform the ongoing discussion within mathematics education and to conduct theoretically based empirical research in the mathematics classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
