A teaching unit on electric vehicles to foster students’ decision-making competencies

Abstract

According to the national education standards set by the standing Conference of Education Ministers in Germany in 2004, one of the central aims of science education in schools is to develop the competency of responsible decision-making. However, appropriate didactic and methodical concepts remain rare. Against this background, a targeted teaching unit for secondary schools including all teaching resources (worksheets, sample solutions, handouts, etc.) has been developed and evaluated. We have chosen electric vehicles as a contemporary context, since there seems to be no consensus in the public debate on this topic yet. Therefore, good arguments abound and can easily be found either for or against the new technology. As an introduction to the unit, students are asked to make a choice for one of two controversial, opposing articles presented to them. They are also asked to estimate how confident they are about their choice on a Likert scale. During the following lessons, students explore the topic not only through physical and technical principles, but also consider aspects outside the technical sphere. At the end students are asked to write their own composition in form of a newspaper article on the subject. The way they base their decisions on their arguments is analysed and assessed. This paper reports on the structure and the materials of the teaching unit as well as classroom experiences.

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