Walton's types of argumentation dialogues as classroom discourse sequences

UID/FIL/00183/2013 DL 57/2016/CP1453/CT0066Dialogic argumentation has thus far been proposed as a way to analyse, understand, and promote meaningful classroom interactions. However, currently there is a lack of systematic proposals for conceptualising argumentation dialogue goals as part of teachers' pedagogical repertoire. Our main goal is to operationalise an existing framework of argumentation dialogue types, the one proposed by argumentation theorist Douglas Walton. To do so, we first identify a set of epistemic criteria for meaningful, from an argumentation point of view, discursive interactions, which we use as ‘framing indicators’ to enrich Walton's existing typology of four argumentation dialogues (information-seeking, inquiry, discovery, persuasion). We applied the resulting pragmatic framework to teacher-student interactions found in 20 transcripts of both science and social sciences secondary education lessons. We found that affordances for these four types of dialogues were also present in teacher-student discourse, where the implied argumentation goal was not fulfilled. We discuss these findings in terms of the need to be able to identify the dialogic potentiality and accountability within teacher-student interactions so that the argumentative potential of these interactions can be fulfilled, resulting in productive classroom discourse within secondary education classroom settings.publishersversionepub_ahead_of_prin

Spatiotemporal Identification of Cell Divisions Using Symmetry Properties in Time-Lapse Phase Contrast Microscopy

A variety of biological and pharmaceutical studies, such as for anti-cancer drugs, require the quantification of cell responses over long periods of time. This is performed with time-lapse video microscopy that gives a long sequence of frames. For this purpose, phase contrast imaging is commonly used since it is minimally invasive. The cell responses of interest in this study are the mitotic cell divisions. Their manual measurements are tedious, subjective, and restrictive. This study introduces an automated method for these measurements. The method starts with preprocessing for restoration and reconstruction of the phase contrast time-lapse sequences. The data are first restored from intensity non-uniformities. Subsequently, the circular symmetry of the contour of the mitotic cells in phase contrast images is used by applying a Circle Hough Transform (CHT) to reconstruct the entire cells. The CHT is also enhanced with the ability to “vote” exclusively towards the center of curvature. The CHT image sequence is then registered for misplacements between successive frames. The sequence is subsequently processed to detect cell centroids in individual frames and use them as starting points to form spatiotemporal trajectories of cells along the positive as well as along the negative time directions, that is, anti-causally. The connectivities of different trajectories enhanced by the symmetry of the trajectories of the daughter cells provide as topological by-products the events of cell divisions together with the corresponding entries into mitoses as well as exits from cytokineses. The experiments use several experimental video sequences from three different cell lines with many cells undergoing mitoses and divisions. The quantitative validations of the results of the processing demonstrate the high performance and efficiency of the method

A Qualitative Focus Group Study for the Exploration of Knowledge and Attitudes of Informal Caregivers Toward Breast Cancer: Perceptions of Informal Caregivers and Healthcare Professionals in Three European Countries

Breast cancer (BC) early screening and detection is a main component for the outcome of the treatment and overall survival. Informal caregivers (ICGs) are less likely to initiate early BC screening methods and utilize health services. The purpose of this study was to explore ICGs' knowledge and perceptions, including educational and training opportunities or barriers, in promoting early detection practices for BC, as well as healthcare professionals' (HCP) respective perceptions concerning ICGs in order to identify the need of selected health literacy interventions. A qualitative focus group study was implemented in 3 European countries, using a purposive sampling technique. In total, 26 ICGs and 18 HCPs were involved. The themes that emerged from the focus groups interviews included knowledge, perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs concerning BC; motivational factors and barriers that influence early screening practices and personal involvement. Motivators and barriers concerning BC screening adherence were linked to knowledge, beliefs and perceptions. Health promotion strategies and user-friendly tools should be developed, targeting on the implementation of BC early detection practices among informal caregivers

Argumentation-in-practice: using action research to develop argumentation practices in secondary science classrooms

For a number of years now there has been increasing interest in the way that argument can be utilised in science education. Educational reforms now incorporate argumentation with reports such as Taking Science to School and the Next Generation Science Standards (NRC, 2012) including argumentation as one of the scientific practices that should be taught in K-12 science education. However, a number of challenges have been noted when teachers attempt to teach science as argument. This study presents a qualitative exploratory case study of an in-service science teacher’s engagement in an action research professional development program. The support and opportunities for reflection provided during the school year, allowed her to identify elements of her practice that she wanted to develop in order to help her students learn better. Perceived impact of her changing practice on her students’ learning, especially in relation to their use of the language of science, their attitudes towards collaborating, and their ability to use evidence in support of their claims, was found to facilitate change. Changes were also noted in moving from construction to evaluation of evidence and arguments, an aspect found to be a challenge for teachers trying to teach science as argument

Promoting responsible action for climate change through socio-scientific inquiry-based learning

SSIBL requires teachers and students to raise authentic questions and carry out investigations that can lead to taking action to address the SSIs explored. SSIs can be explored from a personal, local or global dimension, but if students are to take responsible action then personal relevance is essential. One such issue is that of climate change. The aim of this study is to present and discuss a case study of a pre-service teacher (PST), who took part in a professional development programme for SSIBL and who chose to focus on teaching SSIBL using the context of climate change, which is one of the most important SSIs related to environmental citizenship, and has been shown to pose challenges for citizens attempting to act as agents of change (Barr, Gilg & Shaw, 2011). This study adopted a case study design using qualitative methods collecting data from lesson observations, interviews and the lesson plans designed by the PST. The analysis of the qualitative data collected indicated that the PST (male, mid-20s) was able to address climate change at a global, local and personal level. For instance during a lesson observation with 14-15 year olds, he asked students to compare how climate change affects various countries, what their communities could do to address it, and in this way he used effective strategies for teaching about climate change (Busch & Osborne, 2014). However, the lesson observation and the interview revealed that addressing climate change at a personal relevance level was a challenge, as there was an over-emphasis on the global dimension of climate change. This suggests that when teaching about climate change personal relevance needs to be a starting point for investigations so as to allow students to relate to the issue, and consider explicitly how to take responsible action