«Odyssey» Scientific Debate: Rhetoric and STEM Education

From Firenze University Press Book: Competing, cooperating, deciding: towards a model of deliberative debate

Foteini Egglezou, IRESE, Hellenic Institute of Rhetorical and Communication Studies

Odyssey: Oxford Debates for Youths in Science Education is a European research Erasmus+ KA2 project between institutions of four European countries: a) Poland, b) Serbia, c) Esthonia and d) Greece. The project is addressed to students of secondary school (13–19 years old) aiming at improving their: a) reasoning, b) communication, c) argumentative, d) critical, e) linguistic and f) cognitive skills within the context of STEM education through the introduction of debating. In Greece, the testing stage of Odyssey started on October 2019 and ended on June 2020 with the participation of 11 Greek schools (9 Lyceums / Upper Secondary Schools and 2 Gymnasiums / Junior High Schools), while, the involvement of at least, 32 schools from the four participant countries (8–16 schools per country) is intended.

The project Odyssey emphasizes the importance of teaching Science to all students, independently of their professional orientation, and not only to those that will find their vocation as scientists (Weber 1958). Modern societies need democratic citizens, acquainted with scientific experiences (Sengul 2019) such as the problem-solving through the use of logic and language, in order to make reasonable choices not only as scientists, but, also, as voters, consumers, professionals in everyday life. In other words, the project Odyssey intends to cultivate independently thinking students that can comprehend and evaluate the received information using it in an appropriate way and contributing to the general welfare. For achieving this goal, Odyssey introduces debates as an appropriate didactic strategy for the examination of controversial scientific issues in classroom, since opposite scientific views are not “contrary to reason” (Dearden 1981, 38) and merit an accurate search about their correctness “even if we do not attain” it (Dearden 1981, 40). Within this context, the scientific knowledge is not considered certain and objective (Dewey 1910; Hadzigeorgiou 2015).

On the contrary, it seems to be also interwoven with socio-political, ethical and economic dimensions of real life problems (e.g. militarization of space) as well as with provided data which are complex or ‘uncertain’, since their interpretation ‘differs’ (Levinson 2011, 60). Undoubtedly, the realization of debates as didactic strategy in STEM education presupposes the acceptance of science as argument (Erduran and Jimenez-Aleixander 2008; Sampson and Clark 2008; Cavagnetto 2010; Kuhn 2010) and the critical dialogue between claims of knowledge (Ford 2008a; 2008b).

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36253/978–88–5518–329–1.10

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