Toma de decisiones y desarrollo de prácticas ciéntificas en la Educación Secundaria Obligatoria, sobre el consumo de productos naturales/no naturales relacionados con diferentes contextos

Resumen

Since the end of the last century, the low modvadon of students towards science-related subjects has been highlighted. As a direct consequence of this, in large part, there is a decline in sciendfic careers (Couso et al. 2011; Rocard et al. 2007; Sjøberg and Schreiner, 2010). Factors that cause students' deterioradon and lack of interest in science have been idendfied, such as a lack of connecdon between studies and daily life, an inability to understand the importance of what is being learned, or teachers without sufficient training (Ministry of Universides, 2023a,b). To solve the problem, several soludons have been proposed: changes in the curriculum, greater teacher training, allocadon of more resources, etc. A variety of alternadve teaching approaches have been implemented: context-centred (King & Ritchie, 2012); in the pracdces of sciendfic inquiry (Babee, 2006; Mardn-Hansen, 2002), argumentadon (Erduran & Jiménez-Aleixandre, 2008), etc. These approaches are intertwined with each other with the aim of fostering a more complete, relevant, and pracdcal understanding of sciendfic concepts (Caamaño, 2005). The aim is to increase interest in learning science, highlighdng its usefulness in solving daily problems, while developing cridcal thinking skills and informed, responsible and autonomous decision-making (Berland & Lee, 2012; Chi, 2009; Kuhn, 1991; Muñoz et al., 2020; Osborne, 2010). Likewise, we cannot forget that one of the main objecdves of formal instrucdon is for students to be able to transfer and apply to other situadons what they have learned in a specific situadon (Gilbert et al., 2011). Based on the quesdons raised above, this Thesis aims to address two important educadonal challenges. The first is focused on the treatment of sciendfic literacy through socio-sciendfic issues relevant to students, through the study of the dilemma of choosing a natural product over another that is not, with the corresponding analysis of their reasons. The second is related to the issue of the transfer of learning, which concerns the science educadon community, stardng from socially relevant problems, and thus addressing science educadon on reasoning, argumentadon and/or cridcal thinking, through the study of the decisions and jusdficadons that it makes in reladon to learning in an area (in this case that of food)), is transferred to selected contexts such as medica1on and cosme1cs. Specifically, it aims to answer the following general quesdons: how do students’ reason when faced with relevant socio-sciendfic issues such as the dilemma between a natural product and another that is not? Can the design and implementadon of a specific training proposal in the classroom help reasoning and transfer? Are there stadsdcally significant differences in reladon to the gender of the students, or depending on the school to which they belong? In this Thesis, to reach answers to these quesdons, four studies of different types have been carried out, including the design and study of the implementadon of a training proposal, in which eight research quesdons have been planned. As general conclusions, it can be said that convendonal educadon does not promote the quesdoning of deep-rooted beliefs about the superiority of natural products over nonnatural ones; nor does it help to change the arguments to base decisions, which are usually of the type: origin, composidon, health, sanitary control and comfort. already used in previous studies (España & Prieto, 2005). Likewise, training proposals similar to the one used in this study have the potendal to support students in making decisions and jusdfying their choice between consuming natural or non-natural foods. Finally, it should be noted that it is difficult to carry out the transfer of knowledge in daily life from one context to another, as has also been indicated by other authors (Salmerón, 2013). Faced with this reality, it is considered necessary to implement specific training proposals in the classroom that enable the improvement of students' decision-making, as well as their transfer to new contexts.