Opportunities for Learning.

This research dealt with the social constitution of learning in classroom settings, attempting to reveal Bruner's (1990, 1996) folk psychology or folk pedagogy in everyday teaching and learning processes. Specifically, it focused on how the reasons or arguments for completing activities emerge while children are attempting to solve a given mathematical problem in group work. A microethnographic study of such interactions in German elementary classrooms showed that children do not usually reveal their rationale explicitly, with the execution of a calculation and its justification not discernible from each other--in other words, reflexive argumentation. Further, this practice of reflexive argumentation is effectuated in the semblance of telling a story. The culture of reflexive argumentation in these groups is treated narratively. Examination of the academic task structure (ATS) (Erickson, 1982) of group interactions revealed narrative characteristics: (1) Not all concepts necessary for comprehensio