The approach of experimental research in science education. Contributions from the interdisciplinary research

LORENZO, MARÍA GABRIELA; CAMBRA BADII, IRENE; MICHEL FARIÑA, JUAN JORGE

Dublin

Conferencia; 12th Conference of the European Science Education Research Association (ESERA); 2017

Dublin City University, University of Limerick, ESERA

The diseases, the need for new materials and the lack of renewable resources are some of the issues thathumankind has always had to deal with. Hence, Science has offered some solutions to them. Although apositive connotation has been attributed to these scientific advancements, the research methods andstrategies that specialists employed in order to reach the knowledge that would solve these problems havebeen called into question. Specifically, experimental research carried out in the field of health science usesanimal experimentation for their scientific and teaching endeavors. Throughout the centuries, the stancetaken towards this matter, not only by our society but also by the scientific community itself, has evolvedsignificantly. Nowadays, for instance, the respect for life has become a guiding principle in all fields.Adopting this new perspective challenges the relationship between the notions of research, experimentationand results, all of which combined in this context have the goal of improving people?s quality of life. Hence,we wonder whether science education itself is inseparable from the dilemmas that arise from thesebioethical problems. Our presentation illustrates a way of teaching science that takes into account thebioethical problems that stem from research carried out with living subjects, taking the findings of our fieldwork as a starting point.