Primary-Education Students’ Performance in Arguing About a Socioscientific Issue: The Case of Pharmaceuticals in Surface Water

The teaching of environmental education must change to promote critical, sustainable, and reflective engagement with environmental problems. This study introduces a social-science question for primary education focused on pharmaceuticals in surface water. The aims of the paper are to evaluate the level of students’ performance in arguing their answers in relation to the reference answer; their use and interpretation of provided materials from which they draw the evidence to justify their arguments; and the type of solutions they propose in the framework of sustainability. This is carried out by analyzing the content of their written reports and the discourse during their group discussions. Statistical tests are also used to compare their individual and group performance. The results show that students perform at an intermediate level. They use text and video effectively but struggle with graphs and maps. Their proposed solutions are contextually appropriate and consider multiple perspectives. Notably, their performance is similar whether working individually or in groups. All in all, this pedagogical intervention in the framework of scientific practices and transformative environmental education supports the development of scientific thinking and sheds light on how students process information when addressing socio-environmental issues.