The use of Cartography of Controversy within socioscientific issues-based education: students’ mapping of the badger-cattle controversy in England
The use of Cartography of Controversy within socioscientific issues-based education: students’ mapping of the badger-cattle controversy in England
This qualitative study examines the pedagogical potential that a Cartography of Controversy (CoC) approach has in enabling secondary school students to unravel the complexity of socioscientific issues and to communicate about them. The aim was to examine the types of knowledge and the ways in which students approached uncertainty when asked to explore the badger-cattle controversy in England using the CoC approach. A learning sequence focusing on mapping controversies was designed and implemented across three lessons. Data collected from the students’ cartographies and the audio-recordings of their group discussions during the mapping tasks showed that students were able to use scientific, economic, cultural, social, moral and political types of knowledge in their exploration of the controversy. Identifying tensions between different types of knowledge and becoming aware of their own uncertainties about the issue through posing and recording questions allowed students to identify where uncertainty existed within the SSI explored. The CoC approach allowed affordances for understanding the SSI depending on students’ framing of the task (familiarisation, exploration, consolidation) and on the cartography’s function as an observation, visualisation, and reflection tool at different stages of the learning sequence. Implications for further research and practice for developing students’ socioscientific reasoning are discussed.
cartography of controversy, qualitative study, secondary education, socioscientific issues, socioscientific reasoning
2479-2500
Christodoulou, Andri
0a97820c-7e87-45d6-827a-d72fa1734d0a
Levinson, Ralph
f36122a4-e28c-450a-87d7-c641185560b6
Davies, Paul
0b6ef65b-132c-40a2-aecf-af1fa55c5264
Grace, Marcus
bb019e62-4134-4f74-9e2c-d235a6f89b97
Nicholl, Joanne
e1b8be2b-38f5-468f-900a-a4f5a80e2ab0
Rietdijk, Willeke
4efb541e-5603-435e-a818-30d5ddea2837
1 September 2021
Christodoulou, Andri
0a97820c-7e87-45d6-827a-d72fa1734d0a
Levinson, Ralph
f36122a4-e28c-450a-87d7-c641185560b6
Davies, Paul
0b6ef65b-132c-40a2-aecf-af1fa55c5264
Grace, Marcus
bb019e62-4134-4f74-9e2c-d235a6f89b97
Nicholl, Joanne
e1b8be2b-38f5-468f-900a-a4f5a80e2ab0
Rietdijk, Willeke
4efb541e-5603-435e-a818-30d5ddea2837
Christodoulou, Andri, Levinson, Ralph, Davies, Paul, Grace, Marcus, Nicholl, Joanne and Rietdijk, Willeke
(2021)
The use of Cartography of Controversy within socioscientific issues-based education: students’ mapping of the badger-cattle controversy in England.
International Journal of Science Education, 43 (15), .
(doi:10.1080/09500693.2021.1970852).
Abstract
This qualitative study examines the pedagogical potential that a Cartography of Controversy (CoC) approach has in enabling secondary school students to unravel the complexity of socioscientific issues and to communicate about them. The aim was to examine the types of knowledge and the ways in which students approached uncertainty when asked to explore the badger-cattle controversy in England using the CoC approach. A learning sequence focusing on mapping controversies was designed and implemented across three lessons. Data collected from the students’ cartographies and the audio-recordings of their group discussions during the mapping tasks showed that students were able to use scientific, economic, cultural, social, moral and political types of knowledge in their exploration of the controversy. Identifying tensions between different types of knowledge and becoming aware of their own uncertainties about the issue through posing and recording questions allowed students to identify where uncertainty existed within the SSI explored. The CoC approach allowed affordances for understanding the SSI depending on students’ framing of the task (familiarisation, exploration, consolidation) and on the cartography’s function as an observation, visualisation, and reflection tool at different stages of the learning sequence. Implications for further research and practice for developing students’ socioscientific reasoning are discussed.
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More information
Accepted/In Press date: 17 August 2021
e-pub ahead of print date: 1 September 2021
Published date: 1 September 2021
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
This work was supported by FP7?PEOPLE - International Research Staff Exchange Scheme [grant agreement number: PIRSES-GA-2013-612227]. We would like to thank the school, teacher and students that volunteered to take part in this study. The CASSIS project was funded by the FP7-PEOPLE International Research Staff Exchange Scheme (Grant Agreement Number: PIRSES-GA-2013-612227).
Funding Information:
We would like to thank the school, teacher and students that volunteered to take part in this study. The CASSIS project was funded by the FP7-PEOPLE International Research Staff Exchange Scheme (Grant Agreement Number: PIRSES-GA-2013-612227).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Keywords:
cartography of controversy, qualitative study, secondary education, socioscientific issues, socioscientific reasoning
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 451346
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/451346
ISSN: 0950-0693
PURE UUID: c3578cf6-5a96-4932-a605-3b7afa005291
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Date deposited: 21 Sep 2021 16:33
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 03:26
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Contributors
Author:
Ralph Levinson
Author:
Paul Davies
Author:
Joanne Nicholl
Author:
Willeke Rietdijk
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