Approach of socioscientific issues in science classroom: possibilities and constraints

Abstract

This article presents the results of research on the introduction of socioscientific issues (SSI) in classroom, in order to identify potentials and constraints of the process and implications for the curriculum and for the teacher training process. The research was a case study, in which, the data were collected from of interviews, observations registered in field notes and analysis of lessons recorded in video (videotaped). The lessons recorded were transcribed and discursive interactions of episodes of approach of SSI were analyzed. The investigation had as aims the identification of the strategies and contends explored by teacher in the approaching of SSI, and features which facilitated and to constrained the SSI approach. The study was carried out in one public High school that the teacher adopted the textbook Química na Sociedade (Chemistry in Society). The analysis evidenced the importance of training teacher to carry out the SSI discussions. There are data which evidence that SSI approach could potentially improve the dialogic interactions in classroom and facilitate the emergence of living\experienced situations of students and the introduction of attitudes and values in humanistic perspective. The study also demonstrated the importance of adoption of strategies which engage students in SSI discussions, as the use of debates through the open questions and the use of videos on socioscientific themes. In the end, it states the introduction of SSI as a constituent element of the Science curricula given their objective of educating for citizenship.