Search Results (9)

This paper aims to analyze adults’ responses to children’s argumentative contributions within children–adult dialogic interactions. More precisely, we focus on the phenomenon of children opening subdiscussions within argumentative interactions with peers and adults. This phenomenon occurs when a child problematizes and calls into question some proposition in the ongoing discussion, hence the opening of a subdiscussion is an initiative that comes as unexpected from the perspective of the adult. In this contribution, we examine what happens after a child opens a subdiscussion and how the adult’s reaction to such initiatives can shape the development of dialogue. This means that we observe adult behaviour in dialogic interactions with children, given the complexity of the adult’s role in such interactions. Drawing on the dialogical approach to argumentation, we present and discuss some excerpts of children–adult subdiscussions at a kindergarten. The data analysis uses concepts and tools from a linguistics-based approach to argumentation, i.e., the pragma-dialectical theory, and it highlights conversational dynamics of children–adult argumentative discourse. The study’s contribution is twofold: (1) it presents the important and delicate role of the adult in dialogic children–adult interactions; (2) it shows how the development of children’s arguments is intrinsically linked to the flexibility of the discussion space organized by the adult. Full article

Children on farms face high risks of work- and non-work-related fatalities, with tractors being a significant contributor. This study examines children’s involvement in fatal tractor-related accidents within agriculture in Iceland from 1918 to 2024, explores adult reflections on childhood tractor-driving experiences, and analyses Members of Parliament’s arguments against setting a minimum age for off-road tractor driving. The data are based on parliamentary debates on tractor-related legislation, fatal tractor-related accidents documented in newspaper archives and supplementary sources, and narrative interviews with former summer children who stayed at farms during their childhoods. Over half of the 81 registered accidents involved children—primarily boys—with 75% occurring between 1958 and 1988, when no minimum age for off-road tractor driving existed. The fatality incidence rate for children was more than four times higher than for adults. Arguments against minimum age requirements for off-road driving included the need for child labour, children’s superior driving skills, and the denial that children were more often victims than adults. Since 1988, no child has died while driving a tractor. A human-centred approach focusing on the working conditions, driver capacity, and adherence to safety procedures and legal frameworks is needed to prevent future accidents. Full article

Environmental protection, global food security, and nutritional quality are critical issues for worldwide sustainable development. Plums (Prunus domestica L.), well-known for their rich nutritional content and distinct phytochemical profile, have received increased attention due to their potential health benefits. The present study evaluates the ecological and conventional management systems of quality parameters in three plum varieties—Tuleu Gras, Record, and Centenar—and establishes suitable practices to improve fruit quality and yields. The fruit morphometric features (color, firmness, soluble solid content, titratable acidity, and total sugar) were analyzed during their raw fruit state, while different fruit-sample extracts were assessed for phytochemical compounds and heavy metal concentrations, specifically, zinc, copper, nickel, and cadmium. The results show a wide variability in the examined characteristics among management practices that differentially accumulated throughout the ripening phase and significantly influenced the nutritional value of the plum fruit. The application of an ecological management practice yielded small plum fruits (38 g) and maintained a more consistent and vigorous fruit color compared with the conventional system (83 g). Moreover, ecological plums have higher antioxidant activities, total polyphenols, and flavonoids (21.70–25.54 µM Trolox/g of dw, 3.89–7.76 mg GAE/ g of dw, and 1.45–3.65 mg CE/g of dw, respectively). Among the content of metals in the plum fruit, copper exhibited the highest concentrations (0.83–1.21 mg/kg), while cadmium was detected at the lowest levels (0.006–0.009 mg/kg). The potential health implications of heavy metals, by calculating their estimated daily intake (EDI), target hazard quotient (THQ), and hazard index (HI), for both adults and children were also analyzed. The EDI values of accumulated elements in the plum fruits followed the order of Cu > Zn > Ni > Cd with no concern for human health (THQ and HI < 1). According to this study’s findings, fruit quality parameters are significantly higher in ecological plums, providing a compelling argument for adopting sustainable agricultural practices. These results highlight the importance of selecting sustainable agricultural practices, not only to safeguard the environment but also to ensure high-quality products suitable for human consumption. Full article

Children’s ability to retrieve word meanings and incorporate them into sentences, along with the neural structures that support these skills, continues to evolve throughout adolescence. Theta (4–8 Hz) activity that corresponds to word retrieval in children decreases in power and becomes more localized with age. This bottom-up word retrieval is often paired with changes in gamma (31–70 Hz), which are thought to reflect semantic unification in adults. Here, we studied gamma engagement during sentence processing using EEG time–frequency in children (ages 8–15) to unravel the developmental trajectory of the gamma network during sentence processing. Children heavily rely on semantic integration for sentence comprehension, but as they mature, semantic and syntactic processing units become distinct and localized. We observed a similar developmental shift in gamma oscillation around age 11, with younger groups (8–9 and 10–11) exhibiting broadly distributed gamma activity with higher amplitudes, while older groups (12–13 and 14–15) exhibited smaller and more localized gamma activity, especially over the left central and posterior regions. We interpret these findings as support for the argument that younger children rely more heavily on semantic processes for sentence comprehension than older children. And like adults, semantic processing in children is associated with gamma activity. Full article

This study examines the use of a fixed expression, wo juede (WJ) ‘I feel, I think’, in Taiwan Mandarin in the context of two types of oral production tasks: argumentative and negotiative discourses. The participants consisted of two groups used for comparison: one group of children from Grades 2, 4, and 6, and one group of adults (college students). The results show that both groups were more inclined to utilize WJ in argumentative genres than in negotiative genres. Of the seven pragmatic functions associated with WJ, the participants all had a strong preference to use WJ for the commenting/reasoning function. Developmental patterns gleaned from the data indicate that children’s language expands as their age increases. The implications of the findings for cross-linguistic comparison in the realm of epistemic modality are explored in this paper. This study contributes to the study of Chinese morphology by drawing more attention to the acquisition and development patterns of fixed expressions in larger chunks. Full article

Oral argumentation skills have become a ‘hot topic’ within pragmatic language acquisition research as well as didactical research. In this study, we first discuss characteristics specific to oral argumentation which, compared to written argumentation, has its own mediality and therefore specific requirements. To reconstruct different levels of oral argumentation skills of school children in grades 2, 4 and 6, we collected a corpus of 180 peer discussions without adult supervision and analyzed them based on conversation analysis. In our case study we compare two conversations in terms of different modalizations and epistemic stances in positionings and justifications and briefly show how the use of modalizations can shape both the character as well as the argumentative structure of a conversation. We argue that process-related and stylistic conversational aspects beyond structural aspects in a narrow sense shape oral argumentation to a high degree and therefore belong to the core aspects of oral argumentation skills. Full article

Individuals’ capacities to contribute to more sustainable living are deeply influenced by their early life experiences. Hence, there is a need to discover which experiences are relevant to young children’s contemporary and future contributions to more sustainable living. Perceiving children as aesthetically oriented to the world and their sense of belonging as a core experience for social and cultural sustainability, and using the example of dancing, we investigate how such a sense of belonging can be supported through aesthetic first-person experiences. This article is therefore structured around the following research question: How can adults’ experiences of themselves, others and their sense of belonging—when dancing—inform explorations of ways to foster embodied and aesthetic belonging for social and cultural sustainability in early childhood education (ECE)? Drawing on a phenomenological study, we analyse interviews with four dancers, who differ in age, gender and dance genre. Our analysis reveals their experiences when dancing as being in a meditative state, having a sense of freedom and feeling body and mind as one, described as an overall “different”, resilient way of being and belonging in a social context. Our findings indicate that facilitating moments of sensible and bodily awareness can support a non-verbal understanding of oneself and others, as well as arguments for promoting aesthetic experiences while dancing as relevant to sustainable practices in ECE. Full article

Argumentation is an important aspect in the field of education because of its impact on learning processes. At the same time, argumentation is a complex activity in terms of cognitive, relational, emotional and social dynamics. In this paper, I investigate and I describe possible difficulties encountered by children during the argumentative process. The study involves 25 preschool children at a kindergarten engaged in three building tasks. The tasks were video-recorded and the argumentative discussions transcribed. For the aim of this paper, I analyze how argumentation are distributed among participants. I select interactions in which participants apparently do not argue or there are differences in the degree of argumentative participation between participants of the same group. I analyze these interactions and moments of impasse in the argumentative steps. The findings show how the simplicity of solving the task (e.g., when children do not encounter any problem in completing the activity) and the children’s self-perception of their competences in solving the task may have an impact on argumentation activities. Moreover, this perception is co-constructed by children within the interaction. The study contributes to the line of research on designing argumentation and highlights the role of the adult in managing children’s interactions. Full article

Climate change issues are multi-faceted and transcend different parts of society and the economy; they expose future generations to life-long health risks. We have a responsibility to future generations. One way to shape the future is the appropriate design of education systems. In this article we argue that climate education requires a holistic approach which goes beyond classroom pedagogies. We argue that climate education should not be limited to interventions within the field of school curricula alone. We review the main elements of the system of education qualitatively, both at macro- and micro-levels, and attempt to form a point of view. Our main argument is that climate education efforts should be coordinated and institutionalised. Based on our qualitative research in Poland, we developed a conceptual model and linked it to an assessment tool. Our model includes the elements necessary for a climate-oriented education program. We propose certain indicators which can be applied at school and higher levels of education system management. Our suggestions should not be limited to children’s education but should be incorporated into continuing education for professionals such as lawyers and accountants as well as other adult education programs. The science and research results are now rich and reliable enough that they can be applied to systemic social change (not only at the individual level). For this reason our model presents a conceptual framework for implementing systemic change in education systems that supports the efforts of local and national authorities to address climate change. The model is general and independent of national cultures. Our research offers both policymakers and scientists the opportunity to modify our concept and adapt it to local contexts and the national legal system. Our model should provoke decision-makers to introduce necessary changes in the legal system. The development of climate awareness should take a formalised role within a national education system. In this paper we demonstrate a logical process of reasoning ensuing from the literature review through empirical research down to the implementation stage. Full article