Pixel International Conferences

Society requires reflective and critical citizens who know how to get involved effectively in current problems that include scientific-technological aspects. To this end, education must train university students in the necessary competences to act responsibly in the face of these problems [1]. In these competences, argumentation plays a central role [2] and can be developed in the classroom, among others, through the treatment of socio-scientific issues, as it allows them to reflect on the subject, argue and make decisions [3]. This paper analyses the competence in argumentation about the socio-scientific issue of plastics of students with different scientific backgrounds: 35 students in the fourth year of the Degree in Mechanical Engineering and 43 students in the Master's Degree in Secondary Education Teaching of scientific specialities at the University of Malaga (Malaga, Spain). The activity proposes to argue about the appropriateness of the ban on single-use plastics [4] after attending as listeners to a short debate carried out by two students, one for and one against the issue. The evidence given by the students in their arguments was varied and included physicochemical evidence, economic aspects, environmental and health risks, legislation and social awareness. The Mann Whitney U test showed statistically significant differences between the Master's Degree in Teaching and engineering students in favour of the former, who were able to provide a higher total number of evidence (mean of 2.44 versus 1.83) (U=-2.762, p=0.006) and also evidence relating to chemical (U=-2.066, p=0.039), legislative (U=-3.329, p=0.001) and social awareness (U=-2.972, p=0.003) aspects. Significant differences in favour of engineering students were also detected in the justifications given to support the evidence (U=-2.230, p=0.026). These results highlight the need to continue training both university students and teachers in initial training so that they can argue in their profession in the best possible way. Funding: Project PAIDI 021ProyExcel_00176.