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Der Politikunterricht fordert die Kompetenzen der Lernenden und der Lehrkräfte. Der Beitrag stellt zunächst die den Forschungen zugrunde liegenden Kompetenzmodelle vor. Anschließend werden die Ergebnisse zur professionellen Kompetenz der Gymnasiallehrkräfte berichtet. Der Blickwinkel liegt auf der Frage, ob sie die Anforderungen an kompetenzorientierten Politikunterricht erfüllen. Die folgenden Ergebnisse zur Politikkompetenz der Schüler/innen gehen insbesondere ein auf motivationale und partizipative Einstellungen in ihrer Bedeutung für den Lernerfolg im Wissen und bezüglich der Urteilsfähigkeit. Abschließend wird das Bild durch eine Betrachtung der Unterrichtsqualität aus der Schülerperzeption ergänzt.

Time management is regarded as an important prerequisite for effective and efficient learning in higher education. However, university students’ time management frequently proves to be deficient, especially with freshman students, who can therefore benefit from appropriate time management interventions. The aim of this study was to compare the effects of an intervention focused on imparting time management knowledge with those of an intervention focused on time management practice. We conducted an experiment with N = 118 university students who took part in a course over the duration of one semester. Participants with a time management deficit at the beginning of the semester (n = 88) were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions: (a) time management knowledge, (b) time management practice, (c) control group. Exam scores at the end of the semester were considered as an indicator of participants’ academic performance. The results showed significant time management improvements for both time management intervention groups, but the time management practice group appeared superior. Academic performance was better in the time management practice group also, although the results were inconsistent. The effect of time management practice on academic performance was mediated by students’ time management skills.

This study is concerned with the central issues of community service engagement (CSE) in 21st century democratic societies around the world. To examine the factors influencing postsecondary education attainment’s relationship to CSE, this study utilized data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries using ordinary least square (OLS) and two-level hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) methods, including various factors for each country’s individual and country levels. The results show that attainment in postsecondary education at the individual level and investment and enrollments in tertiary education both have an influence on increasing CSE in 18 OECD countries. The present study is expected to contribute to an understanding of the relationship between postsecondary education and CSE across the world.

Bibliographie: Greusing, Inka/Koca, Eda/Nahrwold, Lena/Niederstadt, Franziska: Fortgeschrittene Einsteigerinnen* – Onlinelehre mit Schulerinnen* an einer TU, FZG – Freiburger Zeitschrift fur GeschlechterStudien, 2021, S. 139-142. ----- Open-Access-Lizenz: Dieser Beitrag ist ab dem 15.11.2023 im Open Access unter der Creative-Commons-Lizenz CC BY 4.0 (Namensnennung 4.0 International) verfugbar. Weitere Informationen zur Lizenz und den Nutzungsbedingungen finden Sie hier .

Schools play a central role in preventing mental health problems from affecting the development and educational opportunities of youth. While school health and social pedagogical support services have expanded in many countries, they are still not considered sufficient in meeting the needs of vulnerable youth. We find particular challenges in the development of sustainable collaboration to support the target group. In this article, we present and analyze empirical data from ongoing trailing research on an interprofessional team focusing on the health and psychosocial conditions of students in various upper secondary schools in Norway. In the article, we discuss what conditions need to be in place for inter-professional collaboration to succeed in the efforts to support students at risk of dropping out of upper secondary school. The article is theoretically influenced by boundary literature and analyzes challenges and opportunities in boundary crossing between different professions and service areas. In the article, we argue for the need to spend time on establishing a reflecting understanding of which qualities the various actors possess and what they should contribute with to create a collaboration that constitutes more than the coordination of what already exists, thereby creating intersecting practices; so-called third spaces.

This is an experimental study conducted on the upper primary school students in the district of S.B.S Nagar, Punjab. The study was conducted on the students of 6th and 7th class of an international School. Total of 100 students were enrolled for this experimental study who met the inclusion criteria and were randomly divided into 2 equal groups by simple randomization technique. They received either the lecture method teaching or the smart class method teaching. For conducting the experiment, the investigator used pre-test and post-test comparison group design. For collection of data, a structured questionnaire and a structured teaching programme was used. t-test was used for analysis and interpretation of the data. The results of the study revealed that the lecture method of teaching was more effective as compared to a smart class method of teaching.

The last two years of Ma Ying-jeou's (Ma Yingjiu) presidency saw the eruption of a controversy surrounding proposed revisions to the high school history curriculum. Although not the first time that the subject of history has exacerbated the tensions between holders of a China-centred view of Taiwan's history and those favouring a more Taiwan-centred approach, this crisis, which took place mainly between 2014 and 2015, was undoubtedly the fiercest witnessed by the Taiwanese society in the sphere of educational issues. By putting the 2014–2015 dispute into perspective through a review of the different attempts made by the pro-Taiwan independence Chen Shui-bian (Chen Shuibian) and the pro-unification Ma Ying-jeou governments to edit the history curriculum, this article will underline the specificities of this particular controversy. This contribution will, therefore, help to shed new light not only on the perception of Taiwan's history promoted by the Ma administration, but also the policy-making process which characterised the last years of Ma's presidency.

Aim: The first goal of this study was to assess the prevalence of different health risk behaviours among Romanian young people. Next, the interrelationship between different health risk behaviours as well as age and gender differences with respect to health risk behaviours were examined. Subjects and methods: Self-administered questionnaires were completed by a sample of 1,598 junior high school students, senior high school students and university students from urban and rural areas of two counties of Romania. Results: The results showed that 31% of junior high school students, 59.7% of senior high school students and 64.8% of university students reported more than one risk behaviour. Many of the risk behaviours were likely to correlate with each other and the strongest correlation was found between smoking, alcohol-related behaviour and precocious sexual intercourse. Factor analysis revealed that among junior high school students all health risk behaviours loaded on one factor. In senior high school students and university students the risk behaviours split into two factors, based probably on their frequency and severity. Factor 1 comprised smoking, alcohol-related behaviours as well as precocious sexual intercourse, while factor 2 included less common behaviours: violence, delinquency and illicit drug use. No gender differences were observed regarding the relationship between health risk behaviours. Conclusion: The results stress the importance of developing prevention programmes among Romanian youth for the behaviours discussed. Further research is needed to identify how to best offer these programmes: as stand-alone programmes or as an integrated set of programmes and whether the same approach has to be taken for younger and older adolescents.

Particle models of matter are widely recognised as being of fundamental importance in many branches of modern science, and particle ideas are commonly introduced and developed in the secondary school curriculum. However, research undertaken in a range of national contexts has identified significant learning difficulties in this topic, and suggests that notions of particles that match scientific models are generally only attained over periods of some years. The implementation of a National Curriculum in Science in England was followed by increasingly prescriptive guidance to teachers. This culminated in a framework for teaching lower secondary science, which identified ‘particles’ as one of five key ideas for organising teaching and learning of science to all 11-14 year olds. In this curriculum context, a basic particle model is introduced at the start of secondary education, and consolidated by being revisited in various contexts over three years. However National Tests suggest that only a minority of pupils attain levels of understanding matching target knowledge. The present paper reports an interview study that explored how a sample of English secondary students explained phenomena commonly met in school science. It was found that students generally used the notion of particles, although most of their particle-based explanations reflected alternative conceptions that have been reported in previous research. It is concluded that a curriculum strategy of early introduction and regular application during the early secondary years is not of itself sufficient to support the desired progression in thinking with particle models, and more sophisticated research-informed pedagogy is needed.

Twelfth grade physics classes with 344 students participated in a quasi-experimental study comparing two small-group learning settings. In the jigsaw classroom, in contrast to the cyclical rotation method, teaching expectancy as well as resource interdependence is established. The study is based on the Self-Determination Theory of motivation which states that the satisfaction of the ‘basic needs’ for experiencing autonomy, competence, and social relatedness is essential to promote intrinsic motivation. Regarding the experience of competence, a small effect in favour of the jigsaw classroom was found, whereas students in the cyclical rotation setting showed medium-sized benefits in experiencing autonomy. A path analysis revealed that these opposing effects balanced each other, that is, no effect from small-group method to intrinsic motivation was found. In contrary to the motivational variables, achievement effects depended on the underlying study topic: based on scanning electron microscopy, the cyclical rotation setting outperformed jigsaw classroom, whereas an opposed trend is observed with regard to the microwave oven learning unit. The higher interestingness of the latter learning unit was revealed as a week mediator from study topic to academic achievement.

This study tested for deep understanding and critical thinking about basic quantum chemical concepts taught at 12th grade (age 17-18). Our aim was to achieve conceptual change in students. A quantitative study was conducted first (n = 125), and following this 23 selected students took part in semi-structured interviews either individually or in small groups that were allowed to interact under the coordination of the investigators. The planetary Bohr model was strongly favoured, while the probabilistic nature of the orbital concept was absent from many students' minds. Other students held a hybrid model. In some cases, students did not accept that the electron cloud provides a picture of the atom. Many students had not understood the fundamental nature of the uncertainty principle. Finally, the mathematical description of the formation of molecular orbitals caused problems in the case of destructive (antibonding) overlap of atomic orbitals. Our approach to conceptual change employed active and cooperative forms of learning, which are consistent with social-cultural constructivism and with Vygotsky's zone of proximal development. It proved effective in a number of cases, and ineffective in others. The variation in students' approaches was explained on the basis of Ausubel's theory about meaningful and rote learning and of the ability to employ higher-order cognitive skills. Nevertheless, the methodology used can be useful for all students, irrespective of their behaviour in traditional written examinations. International Journal of Science Education

The conservation of biodiversity is an important socio-scientific issue, often regarded as a precondition to sustainable development, and the foundation for citizens’ understanding of conservation issues can be laid down in formal school education.This research focuses on decision-making discussions about biological conservation issues among 131 15-16 year old students, to address two main research questions: 1. Can peer-group decision-making discussions, in a normal science lesson setting, help develop students’ personal reasoning in relation to conservation issues? 2. Are there features common to high-quality discussions about conservation which might be readily identified by classroom teachers?Findings indicate the positive value of students taking part in these short decision-making discussions, guided by a structured framework, as part of their normal science classroom activities. Students increase their quality of personal reasoning, and modify their solutions to the issues. The study begins to uncover features about students, as individuals and as members of discussion groups, which can be associated with high quality decision-making about conservation issues, and which teachers might realistically identify. The work calls for the need to cultivate these features, and integrate them appropriately with learning about the scientific concepts that underpin the theory and practice of conservation management. Such integration will facilitate the development of teaching strategies for dealing effectively with the complex topic of biological conservation; not just in terms of science content, but also in terms of how students are expected to engage with the issues.

WOS: 000254947600004 The purpose of this study is to identify how upper secondary school French students (Grade 10-12) interpret chemical transformation with regards to the changes within molecules and atoms, and in terms of intramolecular and/or intermolecular bond breaking. In order to identify and describe the students' assimilated knowledge, four questions were asked to 930 students using a written questionnaire submitted a long time after the related teaching took place. There is much research into student learning in the concept areas discussed here (atoms and molecules, chemical change, chemical bonding), as reviewed in the paper. The present study presents data from an educational system where limited work has been reported in the international literature. The French system has its own unique curriculum, and is taught in the national language (where much of the existing research has concerned learning in Anglophile systems). The research reported here found that French secondary students experienced many similar difficulties in understanding these key scientific concepts to those that have been reported elsewhere, showing the cross-cultural nature of the key educational issues. For example, many have difficulties in understanding the changes undergone by atoms and molecules in the course of a chemical reaction; many are not able to justify explicitly the breaking of inter-molecular bonds and to interpret the breaking of intramolecular bonds in terms of reorganization of atoms, the target level of understanding in the curriculum from the end of Grade 9. However, it is also suggested that some of the specific characteristics identified here are linked to the ordering and language used in the French curriculum, and such cultural idiosyncrasies may offer useful insights into both problematic and valuable aspects of science pedagogy.

Der vorliegende Artikel befasst sich mit Lehre mit Matura, einer ausschließlich auf Lehrlinge beschränkten Form der Berufsreifeprüfung. Anhand problemzentrierter Interviews wurden sowohl Lehrlinge als auch Lehrkräfte, die in dieser Ausbildungsform unterrichten, über (a) Unterstützungsmaßnahmen von Firmen, Schulen und Eltern, (b) die Bewältigung der Mehrfachbelastung, (c) den Umgang mit Lernschwierigkeiten/ -schwächen, (d) die Motive, eine Lehre mit Matura zu absolvieren, sowie (e) über erwünschte Systemverbesserungen befragt. Die Ergebnisse zeigen einen Reformbedarf auf, da trotz hoher staatlicher Fördermittel (6.000 €/ Lehrling) und hoher Teilnehmer/innenzahlen (2015: 11.000) vergleichsweise wenige Lehrlinge (2008–2014: 3.200) eine Lehre mit Matura abschlossen. Dieser Bedarf besteht aufgrund differierender Organisationskonzepte, oftmals mangelnder Kooperation und Organisationsfähigkeit der Akteure (Betriebe, Berufsschule, Trägerorganisationen), zu geringer Ausbildungsstunden, aber auch durch erhöhten Coaching-Bedarf. The presented article deals with apprenticeships with matriculation, a limited form of the vocational matriculation examination exclusively for apprentices. Based on problem-centered interviews, a sample of teachers, who teach in this type of vocational training, as well as apprentices are being surveyed about (a) support measures for businesses, schools and parents; (b) overcoming multiple exposures; (c) how to handle learning difficulties & disabilities; (d) their motives to complete an apprenticeship with matriculation; and (e) required system improvements. The results show a need for reform, because despite high public investments (6.000 €/ apprentice) and a high number of participants (2015: 11.000), there is only a comparatively small number of successful apprentices (2008–2014: 3.200). This need for reform exists because of varying organisational concepts, frequently lacking cooperation and organisational capacity of the stakeholders (businesses, vocational college, host organisations), an insufficient number of training hours, and an increasing demand for coaching.

Es wird anhand der PISA-2012-Daten gezeigt, dass die Fähigkeitskonstellation einen bedeutsamen Einfluss auf die Wahl einer höheren technischen Lehranstalt (HTL) hat: HTL werden eher dann gewählt, wenn sehr hohe mathematische bei gleichzeitig weniger hoch ausgeprägten sprachlichen Kompetenzen vorliegen - eine Fähigkeitskonstellation, die bei Burschen häufiger auftritt als bei Mädchen. Doch selbst unter Kontrolle des Fähigkeitsprofils wählen Burschen wesentlich häufiger eine HTL als Mädchen.

Purpose: The present paper seeks to examine the enrolment and dropout percentage of children in India, supported with empirical findings up to secondary level. Although, the study is general in nature, but the emphasis has been laid on the girl child education, which is one of the greatest concerns in the Indian school education sector. Some of the aspects studied include, enrolment and dropout of children during the period of study, under both boys and girls category, their corresponding growth rate in enrolment, their corresponding decline rate in dropout and many other allied aspects.Scope: The study is confined to secondary level education and the findings have direct bearing on the Indian school education system. Given the population size of India and the socioeconomic conditions of the country, there is a need to observe caution, while generalizing the findings for other countries.Methodology/Approach: The present study is purely based on the analysis of secondary data retrieved from the official website of the Ministry of Human Resource and Development, Govt., of India. The data lasts for the decade 2001-02 to 2010-11 and was retrieved on October 02, 2014. Since the data on the website stands up-dated up to the year 2010-11, as such the findings simply reflect a trend in the enrolment and dropout percentage in India and may show variation by the time figures are updated.Findings: The study reveals that during the period of study, the enrolment percentage of girls has improved over two fold to that of boys. As, compared to 18.17% increase in the overall enrolment of boys, the enrolment percentage of girls increased by 40.52% during the decade. The corresponding growth surely reflects the changed mindset of male dominated Indian social setup towards the girl child. Even, the average annual dropout percentage of girls remained better to that of boys, as the girls recorded a corresponding decline in their dropout percentage by 3.53%, while as in case of boys the dropout percentage declined by 2.54% annually. Despite all these positives, the discouraging part is that compared to 57.39% boys, 60.39% girls’ dropout by or before reaching the upper primary level and against 78.40% boys, 81.72% girls’ dropout by or before reaching the secondary level.Social Implications: Given the new and changed world order, no country can afford to remain elusive of basic formal education, what is commonly known as elementary education and so holds true of India. The study is a positive indicator of the growing awareness among Indian masses towards the promotion of girl child education, but still there is lot yet to be done to reduce the dropout percentage between upper primary and secondary level for both boys in general and girls in particular.

International journal for research in vocational education and training 2 (2015) 1, S. 1-24, The article explores the major features of the Swedish Government’s new initiative - a school based Upper Secondary Apprenticeship model. The analyses are guided by activity theory. The analysed texts are part of the parliamentary reformmaking process of the 2011 Upper Secondary School reform. The analyses unfold how the Government, the Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO), and the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise (SN) construct Upper Secondary Apprenticeship as an activity in the 21st century. The conclusion highlights how three traditional aspects of Swedish initial vocational education and training (IVET) collide in the formation of Upper Secondary Apprenticeship – a curriculum of labour market based apprenticeships, a curriculum of school based IVET, and ill-defined curriculums of school based apprenticeships. The emerging Upper Secondary Apprenticeship curriculum foreshadows multifaceted educational trajectories where the learning targets, and not the responsibility for the student’s learning are displaced from the school to the workplace setting. (DIPF/Orig.)

Erste Analysen der PIAAC-Daten weisen auf die hohe Relevanz des formalen Bildungssystems für den Aufbau der Schlüsselkompetenzen Lesen und Alltagsmathematik hin (vgl. Statistik Austria, 2013). Vor dem Hintergrund der Relevanz des Kompetenzerwerbs in der frühen Kindheit (vgl. Heckman, 2013) legt dieser Beitrag den Fokus bereits auf den Beginn der vorschulischen Betreuung und Erziehung, also den Kindergarten, und untersucht in einem nächsten Schritt die schulischen Bildungswege auf der Sekundarstufe I und II und deren Zusammenhang mit den bei PIAAC gemessenen Schlüsselkompetenzen.

"Ziel der vorliegenden Tagebuchstudie war die Erfassung der Mikro-Entwicklungsprozesse von Commitment und Exploration im Übergang von der Schule in die Hochschule. Im Mittelpunkt stand die Untersuchung der Entwicklungsverläufe von 33 Abiturient/-innen im Zeitraum der Studienentscheidung nach dem Ende der Schulzeit. Den Jugendlichen wurde zwischen Abiturprüfung und Einschreibung an einer Hochschule wöchentlich ein standardisierter Fragebogen vorgelegt. Zusätzlich wurde am Ende des ersten Semesters an der Hochschule das akademische Wohlbefinden (Studienzufriedenheit, Passungserleben und Studienabbruchintentionen) mittels eines Follow-Up-Fragebogens erfasst. Die Datenauswertung der Tagebuchstudie zum Commitment ergab eine Zuordnung der Jugendlichen zu einem von drei theoretisch abgeleiteten Entwicklungsverläufen: Entschieden (Jugendliche, die sich bereits früh im Entscheidungsprozess auf nur eine Studienoption festgelegt hatten), Verengend (Jugendliche, die über die Zeit ihre Festlegung auf eine Option verengten) und Suchend (Jugendliche mit geringen und wechselnden Festlegungen). Es zeigten sich zudem Unterschiede zwischen diesen Gruppen im Explorationsverhalten während des Entscheidungsprozesses und hinsichtlich des akademischen Wohlbefindens. Suchende Jugendliche explorierten wenig in die Tiefe und berichteten geringeres akademisches Wohlbefinden als entschiedene und verengende Jugendliche." (Autorenreferat) "In this weekly diary study we followed thirty-three adolescents through the transition from school to college and focused on the micro-level processes of commitment and exploration while adolescents decided on their college major. Between their final exams at school and their enrolment in college they completed standardized diaries once a week. Nine months later at the end of their first semester in college, adolescents reported on their academic well-being (satisfaction with college major, perceived fit regarding interests and expectations, and drop-out intentions). We assigned the participants to one of three theoretically derived commitment trajectories: decided (adolescents who had committed themselves to one option early in the process and implemented their choice), narrowing (adolescents who narrowed down to one favorite option), and searching (adolescents with low and changing commitments), and found meaningful differences in exploration processes and subsequent academic well-being. Searching adolescents explored particularly little in-depth information about their future studies and showed worse academic well-being than decided and narrowing adolescents." (author's abstract)

The article is devoted to the issues of modernization of physical education of students of secondary special educational institutions music profile, search for the most effective organizational and pedagogical conditions for the diversification of the processa physical culture in the system of secondary professional education

"Ein Amoklauf wie der am 11.03.2009 in Winnenden überrascht die Gesellschaft, in der er stattfindet. Er fungiert gewissermaßen als Bezugspunkt für die mediale Ausleuchtung beteiligter Organisationen, Milieus, Personen und schließlich des Täters selbst. Fragen werden gestellt, Erklärungen gesucht und Prognosen abgegeben, wie in Zukunft ein solches Ereignis verhindert werden kann. Diese Dynamik ist jedoch nicht nur auf der Ebene des medialen Diskurses, sondern auch in der Organisation Schule beobachtbar, namentlich in einem vorn Amoklauf nicht (direkt) betroffenen oberbayerischen Gymnasium. Der Diskurs - so lässt sich empirisch sehen - setzt sich auf mehr als einer Ebene fort. Um dies diskursanalytisch beobachten zu können, bedarf es einer organisationssoziologisch fundierten Erweiterung diskursanalytischer Werkzeuge. Im Rahmen dieses Beitrages soll dies anhand einer Synthese von Niklas Luhmanns Systemtheorie und Michel Foucaults Diskurstheorie geleistet werden. Zentraler Anknüpfungspunkt ist die operative Ausrichtung beider Theorien. Ziel ist es, erste Überlegungen zu einer operativ erweiterten Diskursanalyse anzustellen, um damit den Amoklauf-Diskurs nach Winnenden als Beispiel einer komplexen neuen Welt beschreiben zu können." (Autorenreferat)

It is theoretically proved and experimentally possibility of maintenance of continuity of formation of socially significant hierarchy of motives of the learning of senior pupils by means of multimedia technology proves to be true at training to the physicist. The pedagogical category of continuity as one of important didactic principles is discussed. On the basis of the wide pedagogical experiment which has captured a number of educational institutions, efficiency of multimedia technology is shown at formation of hierarchy of motives of the learning of the schoolboys, having socially significant orientation. Introduction possibility in pedagogical researches of modern statistical measures of estimation is discussed and their efficiency with reference to a problem of continuity of formation of motives of the learning of senior pupils is shown

International audience; The present study contributes to the constructivist research programme (RP) into learning science by comparing patterns in responses from two groups of learners - senior high schools students and pre-service teachers - in the same educational context (Singapore), to a diagnostic instrument relating to the topic of ionisation energies. This topic is currently included in the curriculum for 16-19 year-old students studying chemistry in Singapore (and elsewhere). The comparison shows that although (a) graduate pre-service teachers offered some types of incorrect responses less frequently than high school students; (b) they retained high levels of alternative conceptions commonly found among high school students; and - of particular note - (c) certain alternative conceptions were found to be more common among the graduates. This suggest the intuitive appeal of certain alternative conceptions is such that they can readily be reproduced down 'generations' of learners. The findings are explored in terms of a range of conceptual resources that have been developed within the constructivist RP. The analysis suggests that the curriculum sets out inappropriate target knowledge for senior high school students, given the nature of the subject matter and the prior learning of the students. It is also suggested that it may be fruitful to consider conceptual learning in terms analogous to the RP found in science, and that from this perspective certain insidious alternative conceptions can be understood as derived from commitments that are taken-for-granted and protected from explicit challenge by a protective belt of refutable auxiliary conceptions.

Se trata de un estudio exploratorio y descriptivo llevado a cabo con estudiantes del primer curso de bachillerato de un instituto de la provincia de Granada con el objetivo de describir los significados del concepto de límite finito de una función en un punto que ponen de manifiesto al enfrentarse con tareas que vinculan varios sistemas de representación, tanto en formato de respuesta abierta como de elección múltiple cerrada. El instrumento utilizado fue un cuestionario que incluían tareas provenientes de investigaciones previas como propuestas por los investigadores. El análisis de las respuestas abiertas fundamentado en el análisis conceptual previo de los términos claves "aproximar", "tender", "alcanzar", "rebasar" y "límite" que emergen de las respuestas de los estudiantes concluyendo con que los escolares hacen uso de un lenguaje poco elaborado y con persistencia de significados coloquiales informados ya por Cornu, Monaghan y Tall, si bien el apoyo gráfico es un aliciente para una argumentación más fluida y precisa de los escolares. El análisis de las respuestas de elección múltiple refleja la existencia de contradicciones establecidas por los escolares cuando asignan propiedades simbólicas a diferentes tipos de gráficas, de hecho, las frecuencias asociadas a los distintos casos se corresponden con la complejidad que a priori pueden tener dichas gráficas.

International audience; The present study analyses decision-making and argumentation by high school students in a debate situation on a socioscientific issue, the use of embryonic stem cells in research and therapy. We tested the influence on the debates of two different contexts. Adolescent students at the high school level in the same grade (mean age 16.4 years) from rural and urban zones of Provence, France participated in three debate sessions. During the first session students listed the background questions they want to ask the expert(s). They were also required to identify one or two major issues that would serve as an outline for the future debate. They then discussed these with the expert(s) during the second session and took note of the answers. During this session, control groups met with a neuroscientist whereas the experimental "contextualized" group met with the same neuroscientist together with a representative of an association of patients suffering from a neurodegenerative disease. Analysis of the students' arguments and decision-making revealed that contextualization introduced dynamism in the students' exchanges: they paid more attention to their peers' arguments and were more motivated to argue their own opinion. However, this type of contextualization may contribute to reinforcing ideology in scientific progress. Keywords: debate, socioscientific issue, argumentation, contextualization, expertise, decision-making, human embryonic stem cells.