UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ ARGUMENTATION IN SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

In science and environmental education, one of the objectives is to prepare students for participation in the decision making. To be able as an informed citizen to make decisions, it is important to learn to present an argued point of view. The everyday sense of argumentation suggests that participants present claims, defend their claims, and rebut the claims of their opponents. The study focuses on practising university students' argumentation in an authentic situation and also the way students argue. University students familiarized themselves with a proposal to change a provincial plan. After reading the plan, they assumed to the role of a resident of the area in question and wrote to the planners starting their opinion. We had two different cases: the first case was in science education course and the other case in environmental education course. In the second case students wrote to the Wiki-environment and the opponent commented on the argumentation. These writings (N=17) were analysed by content analysis. Although the students used scientific knowledge, especially ecology, in their argumentation, it often consisted of personal feelings about the effect of the plan on their own lives.