Teachers’ conception of argumentation

There are many teaching methods which can be used in geography classes and argumentation is an important one of them. The interview question "Do you know what argumentation is exactly?" lead to different conceptions of argumentation described by the Vietnamese teachers. The results were divided into three groups based on the different conceptions of argumentation: the first group consists of teachers with a limited knowledge of what argumentation is; the second group consists of teachers who confuse argumentation with other teaching methods; the last group contains teachers who already know argumentation as a teaching method – as a result of a short training program by The Ministry of Education and Training (see Fig 6.1).

1. group

Characteristics Interview extracts

- No or limited prior knowledge about argumentation

- “I know what an argument it is but not yet clear to me.” (18)

- “This is a new technique for me and when you mentioned it. I knew what you were referring to, but I never used it before. I hope I will know more about argumentation, which can help me develop my teaching skills in the future.” (20)

- “As far as I am concerned, argumentation is a demonstration method used in Mathematics” (220)

67 2. group

Characteristics Interview extracts

- Confuse argumentation up with other methods used in geography lessons

- “I never used argumentation before. I think it looks like open questions or teachers give the questions for students, and then teachers will explain or conclude on the information in those questions. I think so or it may have the same name with another teaching method.” (04)

- “In my opinion, argumentation looks like a list of problems for students to discuss.” (17)

3. group

Characteristics Interview extracts

- Know argumentation from the training course offered by Ministry of Education and Training

- “Argumentation is a method in which teachers give a topic for pupils to explain, prove and solve the problems connected to the topic.” (207)

Figure 6.1 The separate groups of teachers based on their knowledge about argumentation

Teachers in the first group know very little about how to define argumentation and about theories of argumentation. A geography teacher (10) mentioned that: “Argumentation is very interesting, but I never knew it before”.

One reason why argumentation is not familiar to the teachers in this group is that they were not trained to use argumentation in their lessons during their academic studies. The second reason is that argumentation is generally not used that often in schools. Teachers rarely use argumentation in the lessons because argumentation takes more time and thus it becomes more difficult to cover all given contents of the lessons. The third reason might be that teachers tend to use lectures, discussions or group work in classrooms. These methods are very useful to the teachers, as by applying them, a lot of information may be transmitted to the pupils.

It can be concluded that teachers in the first group have limited knowledge about argumentation because they lack specific training in this field. The materials on using argumentation in teaching geography lessons are also limited in number.

68 The second group consists of teachers who confuse argumentation with other teaching methods, such as discussion or debate. The following answers of geography teachers offer some hints that: “…I never used argumentation before. I think it looks like open questions or teachers give the questions for students, and then teachers will explain or conclude on the information in those questions. I think so or it may have the same name as another teaching method.” (04). In this interpretation of argumentation, the teacher confused argumentation with “an open question”.

Another teacher stated that: “…Argumentation is a method in which a teacher can give a topic and students can develop their analytical skills, identifiable skills and students can answer on the topic from their teacher” (03). This answer has a problem with defining argumentation. This teacher mentioned that argumentation refers or needs a topic, but it is not clear what kind of topic should be given by the teacher. The answer is therefore too general.

Another teacher’s opinion is that: “… an argument looks like a list of problems for students and they will discuss these problems...” (17). Here the teacher mixes the argumentation method with the discussion method. This teacher compared argumentation to a list of problems that pupils should discuss on.

Teachers in the second group use methods such as lectures, questionnaires, discussions, seminars and because of that, they consider argumentation just like these methods, which they use already.

The third group of teachers have prior knowledge about argumentation because they participated in the short training offered by Ministry of Education and Training. The Ministry of Education and Training organizes a short course on a yearly basis. The aim of this program is to train the leader of teachers in every subject on the methodologies that can be applied in the upcoming school year. Argumentation was one of the topics on the agenda of such a course. Afterwards, teachers could design the lessons by themselves, including the argumentation method in their classes.

69 A more elaborated answer of a teacher from the 3rd group stated: “…An argument is a method in which teachers give a topic for pupils to answer or explain, compare, share opinions with others on the teacher’s topic…” (207). In this case, argumentation is recognized as a methodology, in which teachers give a topic to their pupils. Pupils can use the information in the schoolbooks, or they can use their own information to explain the topic to their teachers. Pupils can compare their judgement with other peers, thus discovering their difference of opinions. In this group, the teachers could define the main point of argumentation: pupils can share their opinions on the given topic.

Another teacher mentioned that: “…This argumentation method has been trained in Can Tho [Me Kong River Delta] and applied at my school, but not so much…” (209). To the researcher’s question "Why don’t you apply argumentation in your lesson regularly?”, the teacher explained that there is not much time to do this in school and argumentation needs to be applied collaboratively at school.

A geography teacher from a school in a rural area stated that: “argumentation is a method that helps pupils to develop their own ideas. If they do not have the information, they can ask their friends, teacher and even they can give the opinion by themselves, argue according to their own thinking and the other students can analyze this opinion” (15). The definition given by this teacher is more precise than others. This interviewe realized that during argumentation “pupils give their own ideas” and “they can express their opinion by themselves, argue according to their thinking”.

In the third group, teachers acknowledged that the main point of argumentation is that pupils can argue pro or against an opinion on a topic given by their teachers. Pupils can use the information in the schoolbooks, their own information or the information from their teachers to support their opinions. The problem is that teachers did not explain argumentation as a method for learners instead of for teachers. Teachers did not mentioned oral and written argumentation in different professional contexts (Budke & Meyer, 2015, p. 14).

70 When defining argumentation, teachers used several approaches. These approaches and different levels of knowledge arise from the experiences which teachers gain during their teaching time. There are teachers who have a clearer concept of argumentation because they attended the short course by Ministry of Education and Training, thus covering for the lack of university training in this field. Apart from that, some teachers confessed they had not known the definition of argumentation before.

The next chapter analyzes geography teachers’ opinions concerning the role argumentation in the process of learners’ development in geography lessons.