Att erbjuda och realisera syften : En didaktisk modellering av undervisning om ett socio-vetenskapligt dilemma i naturkunskap

Sammanfattning: This study is performed as a Didactic Modelling project where a researcher and a teacher work closely together to make use of research findings concerning organizing purposes, content selection and lesson sequencing. The general question in this study is how Didactic Modelling can be used to design, test and adapt a lesson sequence in a Natural Science course (Naturkunskap) in upper secondary school Y11, Y12. The aim of the study is to investigate how students meaning-making can be studied, handled and improved within the complex content of a SSI, Socio Scientific Issue. The two research questions in the study are (1): How is meaning created and what content is used by the students in discussion, argumentation and decision-making in a SSI, and (2): How is the content affected in the meaning-making of the students when the main purpose of the teaching changes to involve a roleplay as a teaching method. A lesson sequence was constructed on Natural gas extraction and included questions about the implications for the environment and society. The teacher’s instruction had a focus on students’ argumentation and decisions. The students’ different meaning-making processes were analyzed and the lesson sequence was then modified with an intervention of a role-play, to try to further develop students’ meaning-making and goal achievement. The study shows that students’ different types of meaning making processes corresponds to different purposes and content in the lesson sequence. Two different types of meaning-making, narrative and problem-solving, are identified in relation to two different purposes. This study also shows that the didactic model of organizing purposes can fruitfully be used in lesson design and implementation to enhance students’ meaning-making of SSI. Finally, the results from this study show how the complexity in students’ meaning-making can be handled through the use of the organizing purposes.