Thinking and acting outside the box – a European contribution to the UN Decade of Education for Sustainability
di: Elena Camino
Pubblicato il: 19/11/2008 10:30:14
Role play and local controversial issues: a learning opportunity.
Elena Camino,, Daniela Marchetti, Laura Colucci – Gray & Marta Angelotti
IRIS Interdisciplinary Research Institute on Sustainability [www.iris.unito.it]
ABSTRACT
Science education in Italy is still focused on a disciplinary approach with an emphasis towards ‘products’ and with a clear dominance of the teacher’s intellectual power upon the classroom. A growing number of research publications in science education show that a variety of teacher / students interactions, classroom strategies and tools, assessment practices have been tested and they give good results in terms of students’ improvement of interdisciplinary understanding and development of autonomous thinking. However most scientific researchers and teachers persist with the practice of traditional lectures. By so doing, they prevent students from achieving the competence to exert their rights and duties as citizens, and to make conscious and reflexive choices when involved in decision processes regarding socio – environmental controversial issues which arise at an increasing rate in our globalized world.
In order to transform such situation, citizens have to be empowered, and education might offer relevant opportunities. In this paper, we outline our experiences of creating and testing some role plays: the most recent deals with an (apparently) local controversy, regarding the project of a high speed train linking Italy and France. Thanks to the role play, students are involved in a controversial issue where scientific data, interests and world views are closely interwoven. The simulation includes sessions of both argumentation and dialogue, during which students develop awareness of the complexity of the issue at its many levels, and achieve competences for nonviolent conflict transformation.