Effectiveness of Socioconstructivist Paradigm to Promote Biotechnology Education at Lebanese High School

Hiba Haidar, Paula AbouTayeh

Abstract: This study aims to analyze the effect of teaching a biotechnology module according to the socioconstructivist paradigm on attitudes and arguments of students. The module has been conducted in four sessions in a grade 11 class (N=53) by two biology teachers having received two training workshops on the teaching of socioscientific themes. Results showed that the cognitive component of attitudes (scientific knowledge) about biotechnology concepts increased at the end of the teaching of this module. Similarly, the emotional component of attitudes (opinions) became more positive towards biotechnology applications. An argumentative debate was performed during the teaching sessions in order to improve the argumentation skills of the students. Results of pre and post test showed that arguments used by students at the beginning of teaching sessions were simple with one justification while at the end of sessions students used in their debate more complex arguments with multiple justifications.

Keywords: Biotechnology, teaching, socioconstructivist, attitudes, arguments.