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Room for discussion? : Examining the role of discussions in students' work with socio-scientific issues

In this thesis the students' experiences of science classroom discussions are examined as well as the nature of their discussions and their ability to take different perspectives while working with socio-scientific issues (SSI). Student questionnaires concerning their attitudes towards school science and science in society, a paper-and-pencil test and focus group discussions have been analysed. The results show that students get to discuss during science lessons, and that they learn a lot from doing so. They also show that the SSI work has brought about a lot of discussions, to which students have a positive attitude. When investigating students' written and oral demonstrationsfewexamplesof argument-based discussions or ofperspective-taking ability were found. Based on these results I argue that in-service teacher training should be carried out, focusing how to organise SSI discussions so that they support students' development of concepts and of generic skills.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:umu-49201
Date January 2010
CreatorsAreljung, Sofie
PublisherUmeå universitet, Institutionen för naturvetenskapernas och matematikens didaktik
Source SetsDiVA Archive at Upsalla University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeStudent thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text
Formatapplication/pdf
Rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

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