Many former studies of students’ informal argumentation about socio-scientific issues (SSIs) shows that reasoning based on values is essential for the students ability to take part in discussion and provides the fundament for decision-making on different SSI-topics. We argue that, if value-laden argumentation is an essential part of SSI-teaching, we need to think about how teachers could help to develop students’ different values on SSI topics and science in school education. However, many science teachers still seem to feel insecure and are in need of instructions and guidance to deal with the intertwinement of ethics and science to manage the challenges in respect to SSI argumentation. The present case study aims to explore how SSI experiences can enhance students’ value formation and develop their ability to reflect on values. In a pre-study, 15 science major students at an upper secondary school in Sweden will be engaged in SSI interventions. The data will be collected using multiple methods (questionnaires, classroom observations of group discussions, students’ written reports, and individual follow-up interviews) in order to triangulate the material. As the main analytical framework, the SEE-SEP-model will be used. The SEE-SEP has earlier been validated as an analytical tool for analyzing students’ informal argumentation on SSIs in both written reports and oral discussions. We hope that the investigation can give some new perspectives on the intertwined connection between science, values and knowledge related to real-life issues.
Proposed research questions