Identifying a moral or social issue and developing and presenting an argument is an important skill that learners are expected to develop in different areas of the curriculum in England. It is, for example, a key part of scientific literacy which enables students to form judgements about the science-based issues which affect their lives.
This study from the Netherlands aimed to test whether fictional film can help students to develop skills in opinion-forming with regard to issues that impact on our day-to-day lives. The particular focus for this study was learning debate issues related to human genetics, such as Huntingdon’s disease, cystic fibrosis, use of stem cells, and therapeutic cloning. The approach described in the study was found to be effective in encouraging year 11 students to develop better strategies for achieving more balanced and better founded opinions and to provide more arguments when explaining their position. Specifically the study findings showed that using clips from fiction films was more effective than using factual news reports, and students involved in both these approaches made greater improvements than a control group of students.
