Analysis of the forms of argumentation of teachers in training in the context of a socio-scientific issue

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyze the forms of argumentation regarding a socio-economic question related to the consumption of coffee by a group of 32 students with a Bachelor’s Degree in Natural Science and Environmental Education. For this, a rubric was used to analyze three fundamental aspects: content, structure, and position or response in the face of the arguments. The results indicate that the students can produce arguments with content, but difficulties are observed in regard to their developing arguments with structure. Furthermore, the students tend to avoid debate situations, which does not allow for the improvement of their arguments. Despite that, the participants acknowledge the importance of including argumentation in their training, and they are aware of their difficulties. This indicates the need to promote a greater number of studies that would allow the importance of argumentation to be included in the educational processes.