18. Modi di contribuire ad un dialogo per la ricerca di spiegazioni

Abstract

Causal explanation is an essential part of both science and history. This meansthat a large part of knowledge in these areas only becomes useful to the extentthat one understands how facts are connected causally. Assuming that most explainingis done interactively – that is, through dialogue – this research focuseson kinds of contributions students can make that move explanation-building dialogue forward. In this paper, we focus on: (I) discussing the role of knowledgebuilding discourse in construction of coherent causal explanations, and (II)creating a systematic inventory of ways of contributing to knowledge buildingdiscourse in science and history. We conclude by discussing next steps for research,which include the development of tools for formative feedback embeddedin the online environment, and designed to increase the level of students'discourse.