Argumentation in preschool: a common ground for collaborative learning in early childhood

Argumentation has been widely explored in primary and secondary school as an important opportunity to promote learning through the development of processes that are both social and cognitive. However, less attention has been devoted to the way argumentation begins to take shape in the early years, especially during conversations which take place both between teachers and children and among peers. Adopting a sociocultural approach, we compared teacher–children talk and peer-talk in preschool to investigate how argumentation can help to create a 'common ground' for collaboration and problem solving through discursive practices. To this aim, collected data have been analysed using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Results show that argumentation is an effective way of improving the children's ability to cultivate shared and critical thinking, provided that teachers are able to support them, paying attention to the role of leadership and involvement.