Discourse as mediator in environmental education in a natural science class: a case study

Authors

  • Marta Massa Facultad de Cs. Exactas, Ingeniería y Agrimensura Universidad Nacional de Rosario
  • Nélida Zapata
  • María Rassetto
  • Cecilia Casciani Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación Universidad Nacional del Comahue

Keywords:

environmental education, environmental discourse, interactional discourse, argumentation, drinkable water, contamined water.

Abstract

Discourse is an educational practice through which students and teachers are related by a sequence of meanings that are expressed, interchanged, negociated and constructed in the dynamic of a class. In this article, we analize the discursive practices and the arguments that are stated during a Science class when the teacher and her students discuss about the concepts “drinkable water – pollute water” when they are dealing with Environmental Education contents. A qualitative research within the perspective of a case study, centred on discourse analysis, was performed. We examine the content, the resources and the structural features that are used by the teacher and the students in order to construct the arguments and to establish the ideas. Two different templates were detected: the teacher’s, is based on perceptions and operative concepts, while the student’s one is organized in order to seek a microscopic explanation. Nevertheless, negotiation between these two perspectives fails during the dialogic interaction.

Published

2016-11-13

How to Cite

Massa, M., Zapata, N., Rassetto, M., & Casciani, C. (2016). Discourse as mediator in environmental education in a natural science class: a case study. Investigations in Science Education, 9(2), 177–197. Retrieved from https://ienci.if.ufrgs.br/index.php/ienci/article/view/554