Basic Research on Consensus Building Ability in Elementary School Science

—Through a Fact-Finding Survey Based on Evaluation Questions—

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to clarify the actual state of elementary school students’ consensus building abilities in ordinary science classes, and to derive suggestions for devising teaching methods based on the survey results. In order to achieve these goals, we created evaluation questions to measure consensus building ability and conducted a fact-finding survey of fifty-eight students in the sixth grade of elementary school. The results of the survey revealed that problems exist regarding “the ability to examine the validity of mutual ideas based on scientific grounds” and “the ability to find consensus points that everyone can be convinced of” compared to “the ability to compare and classify”. Based on these results, it is suggested that utilizing consensus building in the classroom may be an effective way to make students and teachers aware of the judgment criteria when judging the importance of cultivating “the ability to examine the validity of mutual ideas based on scientific grounds”. Regarding “the ability to find a consensus that everyone can agree on,” it was suggested that not only “metacognition of oneself” but also “metacognition as a group” could be utilized as an effective tool.