Recognition and operationalization of Future‐Scaffolding Skills: Results from an empirical study of a teaching–learning module on climate change and futures thinking

Abstract

This article takes its point of departure from the younger generation's problematic relationship with time and the future. A general sense of changeability and directionlessness in society compromises young people's confidence in themselves to make a difference as individuals in important global issues affecting their futures, such as climate change. Given recent aims and commitments of science education to promote sustainable development and student agency, this study explores how science teaching can help students imagine and face possible future scenarios and develop agency in the present to influence them. This article presents a science education approach to equip secondary school students with skills of futures thinking and agency that we call “future‐scaffolding skills.” It also shows the process of building an operational definition for recognizing those skills in students' discourse and actions. For this purpose, an empirical study was carried out in the context of a teaching–learning module on climate change, consisting of activities inspired by the field of futures studies. Essays, individual and group interviews, questionnaires, and video recordings of students' final projects were collected from 24 students (16–19‐years old) from three European countries. The results contribute to operationally defining “future‐scaffolding skills,” consisting of “structural skills” (the ability to recognize temporal, logical and causal relationships and build systemic views) and “dynamical skills” (the ability to navigate scenarios, relating local details to global views, past to present and future, and individual to collective actions).

Futurising science education: students’ experiences from a course on futures thinking and quantum computing

“…The present study originates from one of them: the EU-funded project I SEE. This article especially complements the conceptualisations of Levrini et al (2021): while based on similar starting points in both context and theoretical foundations, our specific focus is relating futures thinking (and by extension, 'future-scaffolding skills' as formulated by Levrini et al) to perceptions of technology and agency. In addition, we have aimed to illustrate how future-oriented ways of teaching science apply to topics outside the immediately relevant case of environmental sustainability issues.…”

“…To test an educational approach to fostering students' capacities to imagine the future and to take an active role in it in the context of a contemporary science topic, we developed an experimental teaching-learning module called 'Quantum computers and the future of ICT' (Palmgren et al, 2019). This module was designed and implemented under the European Erasmus + project 'I SEE ' (2016-2019) that examined ways of bridging futures studies to science education and implementing future-oriented activities in science classes (Branchetti et al, 2018;Levrini et al, 2021;Tasquier et al, 2018).…”

“…This interdisciplinary field investigates trends, patterns and causes of change and stability in order to develop foresight and create future scenarios. From this field we borrow the notions of 'futures thinking' and 'perception of the future' (see Levrini et al, 2021). These notions typically refer to abilities of disengaging from deterministic future views, understanding the plurality of futures and identifying and questioning assumptions to develop alternative scenarios (see e.g.…”

“…As promoting sustainability by fostering transformative agency is considered a central objective of science education, and science and technology are typical ingredients in young people's dystopian views (Carter & Smith, 2003) as well as hopes of sustainable futures (Cook, 2016;Lloyd & Wallace, 2004), there are great demands and opportunities to elaborate futures thinking specifically in science classrooms. However, pedagogies inspired by futures studies have not been adapted in science education until a few initiatives in the recent years (Branchetti et al, 2018;Jones et al, 2012;Levrini et al, 2019Levrini et al, , 2021Lloyd & Wallace, 2004;Paige & Lloyd, 2016;Tasquier et al, 2019). The present study originates from one of them: the EU-funded project I SEE.…”

The potential of “civic science education”: Theory, research, practice, and uncertainties

“…One recent study published in this journal explored students' experiences in a climate change curriculum that enabled them to consider various possible future scenarios, including scientific and societal dimensions (Levrini et al, 2020). After learning about climate change, students were introduced to the "cone of possible, plausible, desirable future scenarios" and asked to entertain possible courses of action that they could take as responsible, active citizens faced with a variety of climatic futures.…”