Primary school environmental competences from a teaching unit on the controversy: ‘House or Wetlands?’

Abstract

The study of environmental competences, within the field of Science Education, is a recent research topic, which involves analyzing the learning ability to cope with the complexity of environmental issues. In this context, a need to conduct a study on socio-scientific questions focusing the topic of wetlands emerged, and its main goal was to analyse the impact of socio-scientific issues (SSI) in the development of fourth graders’ environmental competencies, at the General Santander School. Qualitative methodology was employed in this micro-ethnographic research, which allowed researchers to establish the categories for the analyses of the audio recordings made throughout the sessions of this teaching unit. Data analysis demonstrated a positive impact of the socio-scientific issues in enhancing environmental competencies, through the use of skills, such as: problem recognition, involved agents’ recognition, involved agents’ role in problem-solving, development of scientific conceptions, and the ability to propose and implement responsible and informed solutions.