Caracterización de argumentos expuestos por estudiantes en la clase de ciencias, cuando se debate en torno a la explotación minera como cuestión sociocientífica

Abstract

This research emerged from the search of didactic alternatives for the teaching of sciences, which sought to move away from the traditional teaching model in which knowledge is presented and elaborated with a depleted image of science. In order to solve this, a teaching and learning model where science is recognized as a social, cultural, historical and collaborative process is necessary. In this process, the students have a leading role that allows them the ability to cooperatively construct knowledge, enable the formation of informed citizenry, and the ability and make social decisions argued in an epistemological component of science.

On that basis, it was designed a learning unit in which mining was taken as a socio-scientific issue. The discussions between students, their statements during the implementation of the learning unit, and the characterization of the sentences constructed by the students allowed inferring the elements of Toulmin’s argumentative model (MAT), analyzing their qualities and the areas from which they are justified.

The research was framed from the interpretative paradigm, with a qualitative perspective and case study methodology. The case under study involved 40 eighth-grade students between the ages of 13 and 16, from the General Santander Educational Institution in the municipality of Soacha in Cundinamarca. During the development of the activities proposed in the didactic sequence, the students constructed oral and written argumentative statements, content analysis was performed on the students’ argumentative statements and separated into three separate categories: elements of the MAT, qualities of the elements, and fields or knowledge that justify the statements.

The findings establishes that scientific education in which dialogue, cooperation, debate, and reflection are promoted, invokes students reasoning processes, and develop unique skillsets such as: generate o modify conclusions based on the acquisition of new data, establish a consensus with peers, defend and justify ideas through various methods of argumentation, that favors the formation of critical citizens able to cope with the socio-scientists problems in which they are immersed.

Key words: Teaching of sciences, Learning unit, Socio-scientific issue, Toulmin’s argumentative model, Argumentative statements, Critical citizens.