Co-Designing a Controversy-Based Educational Programme in a Science Centre

Abstract

In this chapter, we investigate the use of collaborative design techniques and principles as a way to develop the practice of addressing controversial and wicked problems in science centres. One researcher and four science centre educators co-designed a controversy-based educational programme for upper secondary schools in a Norwegian science centre. The process provided insight into the complexity of designing controversy-based educational programmes, as the concept, content and pedagogical activities all call for new ways of thinking about educational design. In addition, co-design calls for new ways of thinking about research in that we experienced conflicts with distributing responsibility and roles, as well as with expectations of the outcome of the co-design among the educators and the researcher. Nevertheless, we argue that co-design was a suitable approach for creating a common language and awareness about the intentions and aims of addressing controversial issues.