The role of the problem in the socioscientific issues and in the discursive dynamics of the classroom

ABSTRACT:

Based on socio-historical-cultural theory of activity and on the research program of the socio-scientific issues, the role of the problem as an element of continuity and articulation between activities of a didactic sequence is discussed, based on the analysis of the discursive movement of problematization and displacement of contexts to produce meaning to contents, as well as negotiate motives between teachers and students. To this end, a set of classes carried out in a didactic sequence was categorized to identify “activities”, “contents”, “problem” and the articulation of these last two categories. Next, discursive strategies mobilized by a Chemistry teacher and her students were analyzed in a representative episode of the process of understanding and solving the problem. It appears that the multidimensionality of the problematizing approach contributes to the negotiation and sharing of motives and has the potential to expand the influence of the research program on socio-scientific issues on other spheres of society beyond the school itself

Key words:
Activity; context; discursive interaction; problematization; socioscientific issues