test_moissonnage_selune
type: Agent

Nanotechnologies in secondary education : A study of highschool students' understanding of the controversies raised by nanotechnologies
type: Dataset
contact point: Organization
  fn: CCSD
keyword: shseduhumanities-and-social-scienceseducation
keyword: nanotechnology
keyword: socioscientific-issues
keyword: enseignement-secondaire
keyword: controversies
keyword: design-based-research
keyword: recherche-design-based
keyword: questions-socioscientifiques
keyword: nanotechnologies
keyword: theses
keyword: secondary-education
keyword: controverses
keyword: infoeu-reposemanticsdoctoralthesis
landing page: https://theses.hal.science/tel-00949146
description: The purpose of this manuscript is to characterize the ways highschool students can grasp nanotechnologies controversies and to identify how they critically consider different discourses held by different actors about these technoscientific developments. As a first step, we completed an analysis of the controversies raised in France by nanotechnologies. It showed that in addition to questions about the products of nanotechnologies and their effects, the ways nanotechnologies' programs are developped and currently exist in our societies constitute a bone of contention. We used this epistemological and sociological analysis of the controversies as a touchstone to progressively design a set of school activities. To elaborate them, we also resorted to a design-based research approach and implemented them with four groups of about 30 15-17 years old students. The final pedagogical sequence consisted of a role play, a webquest and a last activity were students completed a text summarizing their collective stance on nanotechnologies developments. The analysis of students' oral and written productions that we have carried out, is twofold. In order to characterize their collective understanding of the controversies raised by nanotechnology, we analyzed the contents of students' interventions by using Albe's (2007) model on schooling socioscientific controversies. Moreover, attention was paid on how students' critically consider discourses on nanotechnology, in particular by identifying fallacies in their argumentation. This was performed following a pragma-dialectical approach of argumentation (van Eemeren and Grootendorst, 1996, 2004). These analyses showed students grasped many aspects of the controversy. They proved able to understand some documents directly emanating from the social space. They also critically discussed some discourses held on nanotechnologies, in particular the ones they regarded as acceptability discourses. However, when expressing their opinions, stude…
identifier: NNT: 2013GRENS023
issued: 2026-05-06T07:54:15.014584
language: fr
modified: 2026-05-06T07:54:15.014589

Nanotechnologies in secondary education : A study of highschool students' understanding of the controversies raised by nanotechnologies
type: Distribution
access URL: https://theses.hal.science/tel-00949146
format: HTML
issued: 2026-05-06T07:54:15.035827
modified: 2026-05-06T07:54:14.992155