Improving students' argumentation skills through a product life-cycle analysis project in chemistry education

Abstract

The aim of the study discussed in this paper was to link existing research about the argumentation skills of students to the teaching of life-cycle analysis (LCA) in order to promote an evidence-based approach to the teaching of and learning about materials used in consumer products. This case-study is part of a larger design research project that focuses on improving education for sustainable development (ESD) in chemistry teaching by means of combining a socio-scientific issue (SSI) and life-cycle analysis with inquiry-based learning. The research question was: How do students (N = 8) use scientific, ecological, socio-economical and ethical argumentation in the life-cycle analysis of a product? The research method for this study was content analysis performed on written student answers and an audio recording of a debate. The results show that the students' scientific and ecological argumentation skills with regard to the life-cycles of products were improved during the life-cycle analysis project. The studying also affected, to a lesser extent, the students' ability to form socio-economical and ethical arguments. The type of student-centred and cross-curricular product life-cycle analysis project discussed in this paper is a suitable new method for teaching socio-scientific argumentation to chemistry students at the secondary school level.