Reflective argumentation as a tool to support formative assessment processes: the key-role of the teacher

Abstract

This paper proposes some reflections on the role played by the teacher in implementing teaching practices aimed at promoting processes of reflective argumentation as a support for formative assessment in Mathematics. Through the analysis of some excerpts from a classroom discussion realized during a teaching experiment with lower secondary school students (grade 7), the teacher’s key-interventions are highlighted, focusing on their role in stimulating reflective argumentation and in fostering the activation of specific formative assessment strategies.