From the perspective of fostering "scientific literacy" such as knowledge and interests in science and encouraging citizens to participate in science, education that introduces social issues created by science and technology is drawing attention.Various positions are involved in considering social problems, and it is necessary to take a bird's-eye view of the opinions of pros and cons and propose solutions aimed at consensus. It is thought that a good thinking ability will be cultivated, but the practice in Japan is still small.
Therefore, the Kobe University group developed an educational program for liberal arts university students to foster proposal-based decision-making on social issues in science and technology, and conducted an empirical study with the participation of 49 liberal arts university students.As a result, it was shown that many of the participants were able to elucidate the conflict structure of opinions and cultivate the decision-making power to propose solutions for resolving and alleviating the conflict.
The theme of the program is "Pros and cons of developing functional rice by genetic recombination," which is one of the social issues of science and technology.We asked them to devise a solution to this theme and evaluated their grades using various indicators.
For example, in the evaluation by opinion, we asked them to write an opinion on the theme in the first half and after the end of the program, and evaluated how they justified their claim, the argument structure, and the existence and quality of the proposal.In the first half of the program, the number of dissenting opinions used to justify the allegations was small, but increased in the post-program opinion.Also, in the first half of the program, the majority of the decisions were those that reinforce their opinions with opinions of pros and cons, while after the end, the number of decisions that stated solutions for resolving conflicts increased. ..In other words, this program can be expected to have the effect of cultivating the ability to think about the theme from multiple perspectives and make recommendations for building consensus based on disagreements.
In the future, the group aims to promote the development of educational programs for younger people and diverse age groups, and to foster citizens with scientific literacy.
Paper information:[International Journal of Science Education] An intervention study on students' decision-making towards consensus building on socio-scientific issues
