A dilemma concerning the replacement of calligraphy with technology to teach how to write was posed to 312 pre-service Spanish infant and elementary school teachers (PSTs). A series of arguments of a different nature taken from educational professionals were provided to provide the decision-making stage with a solid ground. 60% of PSTs defended their decision on the basis of opinion rather than scientific sources. Pearson’s chi-squared test did not show any significant differences when comparing qualification and age with the decision adopted or the nature of the argument. Differences were found in women exhibiting lesser preference for change. As conclusion, we found that there is no consensus amongst PSTs with regards to change. This reinforces the need for the educational community to make an effort to try to improve decision-making and the argumentation skills in PSTs.

This study examined whether participation in a role play on the socio-scientific issue of the use of nuclear power had an impact on pre-service primary teachers’ ideas regarding the process of obtaining electricity in a nuclear power station. Before and after the role play, 78 pre-service primary teachers were asked to describe this process to analyze the ideas they displayed about the stages involved in it. The results showed, overall, an increased presence of more scientifically informed ideas in some of these stages following the role play, although a number of non-scientifically informed ideas persisted, for example, regarding the way in which heat is obtained or the final transformation of energy into electricity. These results support the potential value of role play for developing more scientifically informed ideas, although some modifications of the role play are recommended for further development of them.

The use of nuclear power is a socio-scientific issue that is controversial in many areas. Concerns of nuclear power touch on health effects, environmental impacts, employment concerns and energy supply; arguments both for and against it are easily generated. This paper examines the specific aspects addressed by preservice primary teachers in their arguments during their participation in a roleplaying activity on the SSI of nuclear power stations closures in Spain. This was done in order to better understand informal reasoning modes, as well as the possible effect of the roles defended and the design of the staging of the role play. To this end, the transcripts of four role plays were analysed. The data analysis was carried out by open coding, extracting different categories of analysis that were classified into three different informal reasoning modes: environmental, financial and social. The results showed that participants used more environmental-oriented arguments than financial and social ones. Differences in informal reasoning modes were found between some roles and between the two parts of the staging. Some educational implications of these results are discussed, such as providing more information to the participants before the roleplaying activity and emphasising the scaffolding of the social aspects when designing the role play.

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Public debate often centers on issues that affect our lives and which reflect interests of various social groups and scientific communities, leading to controversies about what we may call socially acute questions (SAQs). In this paper we focus on two SAQs linked to the dominant model of meat production and consumption in Western countries, namely its impact on the environment and the health problems associated with high-meat diets. Given the importance of education in relation to these SAQs, our main objectives here were to examine the extent to which a Cartography of Controversy (CoC) approach is a useful tool for exploring and visualizing the views and ideas of preservice teachers about the controversies associated with this model of meat production and consumption, and to compare their initial maps with our own, one that is informed by a more detailed socio-epistemological analysis. As a complement to this inquiry, we also present the SAQ–Eating Meat project, the aim of which is to encourage citizens to reflect on how food production and consumption may impact health and the environment, and then to take action toward change. In comparison with our own map, those produced by students did not reflect the full complexity of the controversies surrounding the dominant model of meat production and consumption, and some actants were missing. The results nevertheless suggest that a CoC approach is a useful way of engaging students with SAQs and that it offers them a framework in which to extend their inquiry and knowledge, providing a platform from which they may move toward taking action for change.