Socio-Scientific Controversy over the Use of Plastics: Argumentation with Pre-Service Teachers with a Role-Playing Game

Abstract

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. 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 (Malaga, Spain). This activity, part of a broader training programme to develop critical thinking, is focused on the current issue of plastics consumption, specifically the elimination of its use from 2021, with the objectives of identify students’ perceptions of role-playing as a teaching strategy for dealing with a complex problem such as this controversy and analyse the emotions developed in the role-playing game. Often, role-play, as an educational resource, has limited acceptance in the educational field, probably because its benefits are not known, such as the development of argumentative capacity, the 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 points of view. 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”. Therefore, this experience highlights the need to train PSETs in these types of strategies to allow them to transfer successfully to the primary classroom.