Pixel International Conferences

The construction of arguments to defend different points of view is a common practice in different contexts of our daily life. In the educational sphere, we refer to argumentation as a social, rational and verbal activity (Chin and Osborne, 2010). The experience presented here shows the use of a ludic strategy, such role-playing, to improve the argumentation capacity in 66 Pre-Service Elementary Teachers (PSETs) of the University of Malaga. This activity focused on the current issue of plastics consumption, specifically the elimination of its use from 2021, with the objectives of to develop critical thinking through this controversy and make them reflect on its possible application to the practice. Often, role-play, as an educational resource, has a limited acceptance in the educational field (Grande and Abella, 2010), probably because its benefits are not known, such as the development of argumentative capacity, motivation of students, or promote attitudes such as empathy or tolerance, among others. In the case of science education, it is ideal for establishing a debate, with different approaches of each role, in the classroom using a specific social controversy with a scientific background, such as the use of plastics. To stimulate debate, the role-play used eight roles in favour (e.g. ecologist, fisherman, environmental scientist) and another eight against (e.g. lobby, oil extractor, packaging chain consultant) the controversy. Overall, the PSETs considered the experience to be very positive, as their involvement in the game was high. Also, they showed an excellent predisposition to use this strategy to foster the development of argumentation capacity, expressing it with ideas such as "it creates empathy", "it develops critical thinking", or "it encourages the capacity to argue". Concerning the academic potential of role-playing, the PSETs evaluated it better after the implementation in the classroom (8.6/10.0) against a rating of 8.3 out of 10.0 before it. Likewise, before the implementation, 54.1% of the PSPSTs showed interest, and 20.3% showed insecurity in defending their role; passing to values of 64.9% and 1.8%, respectively, after it. Therefore, this experience highlights the need to train PSETs in these types of strategies to allow to transfer them successfully to the primary classroom.

Keywords: Pre-service teachers, role-playing, plastics, scientific argumentation, social problems.

References:

[1] Chin, C., Osborne, J. (2010). Supporting argumentation through students’ questions: Case studies in science classrooms.  Journal of the Learning Sciences, 19(2), 230-284.
[2] Grande, M., Abella, V. (2010). Los juegos de rol en el aula. Teoría de la Educación. Educación y Cultura en la Sociedad de la Información, 11(3), 56-84.