When students speak, who listens?: constructing audience in classroom argumentation

Does a speaker craft an argument carefully if no one will hear it? Does an engineer design structures without reflecting on the individuals for whom her creations will have meaning and utility? Learning sciences research often explores such creative activities as meaningful opportunities for learning-inherent in these acts of creation is the concept of audience. In this paper, we draw on the philosophical and science studies literature to further unpack the role of audience in argumentation and examine three different ways that educators have addressed the problem of creating an audience for student work. We discuss how these approaches can challenge existing classroom structures and present evidence from empirical studies that demonstrate some of the outcomes.