Science students' critical examination of scientific information related to socioscientific issues (original) (raw)
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Examination of the Views of Science Teachers Trained in a Project on Socioscientific Issues
Science Insights Education Frontiers
Socioscientific issues (SSIs) have a scientific basis, have a dilemma in their nature and are often discussed under political and social influences. Teachers perceive SSIs as a difficult subject to teach. This project was carried out to guide teachers in overcoming this difficulty and to enable them to include practices that they can adapt more easily to their lessons. The purpose of the current study is to evaluate the views of science teachers on the teaching of SSIs and the project carried out within the scope of a funding project for teaching SSIs. The study was designed according to a single-group pre-test post-test experimental design. The study group the study comprises teachers from different branches of science (15 middle school science teachers, four biology teachers, three physics teachers and two chemistry teachers) from various provinces of Türkiye. As the data collection tools of the study, the Project Participation Form, the Scale of Views on Teaching Socioscientific ...
Student conceptualizations of the nature of science in response to a socioscientific issue
International Journal of Science Education, 2004
This study investigates student conceptualizations of the nature of science (NOS) and how students interpret and evaluate conflicting evidence regarding a socioscientific issue. Eighty-four high school students participated in the study by reading contradictory reports about the status of global warming and responding to questions designed to elicit ideas pertinent to the research goals. A subsample of 30 students was interviewed in order to triangulate data from the written responses. Data were analyzed using a qualitative methodological approach. The participants displayed a range of views on three distinct aspects of NOS: empiricism, tentativeness, and social embeddedness. Findings indicate that interpretation and evaluation of conflicting evidence in a socioscientific context is influenced by a variety of factors related to NOS such as data interpretation and social interactions including individuals' own articulation of personal beliefs and scientific knowledge. Implications for science teaching and learning are discussed.
Investigating the Crossroads of Socioscientific Issues, the Nature of Science, and Critical Thinking
2002
This study investigates student conceptualizations of the nature of science (NOS) and how students interpret and evaluate conflicting evidence regarding a socioscientific issue. Eighty-four high school students participated in the study by reading contradictory reports about the status of global warming and responding to questions designed to elicit ideas pertinent to the research goals. A subsample of 30 students was interviewed in order to triangulate data from the written responses. Data were analyzed using a qualitative methodological approach. The participants displayed a range of views on three distinct aspects of NOS: empiricism, tentativeness, and social embeddedness. Findings indicate that interpretation and evaluation of conflicting evidence in a socioscientific context is influenced by a variety of factors related to NOS such as data interpretation and social interactions including individuals' own articulation of personal beliefs and scientific knowledge. Implications for science teaching and learning are discussed.
Journal of Education and Training Studies, 2016
Socioscientific issues (SSIs) have gained recently more importance in science education. SSIs are an important component of scientific literacy. SSIs are social dilemmas including conceptual or technological links to science. The present study aims to determine SSIs related research trends via content analyses of the articles published from 2004 to 2015 in five selected science education journals (SE, JRST, S&E, IJSE and RSE). Therefore, first, five journals with the highest impact factor were selected. Then, SSIs related papers were determined using electronic database search and thus 122 SSIs related articles were analyzed to determine trends in timeline, research types, related research topics, and research sample groups. The results show that SSIs related articles increased steadily leading to a peak in 2012 with the highest publishing rate in IJSE. Most of the SSIs related research employed qualitative methods. The highest rate of SSIs related qualitative studies was determined in IJSE (50.00%), and the lowest in S&E (3.57%). However quantitative methods were employed the least. In the relevant SSIs related research published about argumentation, decision-making, and informal reasoning were the most frequent SSIs related topics. The most studied research sample groups consisted of junior and senior high school students. Preschoolers were not among the sample groups. These findings indicate SSIs progressed throughout the years for paving the way for further SSIs related research studies.
International Journal of Information and Education Technology
The pedagogical use of Socioscientific Issues (SSI) in formal education has increased in the last decade, specifically as a way to improve STEM teaching processes and results. However, several theoretical interpretations coexist about SSI in formal education, thus posing a challenge to developing knowledge from practice. An examination of recent papers was conducted to elicit the conceptualizations of SSI in science education research according to three theoretical dimensions of the curriculum: purpose, contents, and teaching and learning strategies. Results show that as for purpose, SSI is currently conceptualized as citizenship education, and scientific literacy or competence. As for contents, SSI is related both to knowledge of science and knowledge about science, as well as some skills such as argumentation. Finally, SSI is associated to pedagogical strategies, mainly Inquiry-Based Learning; and to pedagogical techniques such as dilemmas and group discussions. This conceptualiza...
Science teachers’ opinions on socio-scientific issues
Contemporary Educational Researches Journal
Socio-scientific issues take their content from situations that can be encountered in daily life. Therefore, teaching these subjects is among the important aims of science education. This study aims to determine the views of science teachers on socio-scientific issues. The study was carried out with 26 science teachers (18 women and 8 men) working in schools affiliated with the Ministry of National Education in the city centre of Kayseri in the 2020–2021 academic year. Open-ended document questions were used as a data collection tool in the study. Content analysis was used in the analysis of the qualitative data obtained in the study. It was concluded that some science teachers did not take any courses related to socio-scientific issues and their teaching in education faculties during their undergraduate education, while the content of existing courses only provided information on some socio-scientific issues. Keywords: Science education, science teachers, socio-scientific issues;
Multiple Views of the Nature of Science and Socio-Scientific Issues
2000
The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between students' conceptions of the nature of science and their reactions to evidence that challenged their beliefs about socio-scientific issues. The study used 248 students from 9th and 10th grade general science classes, 11th and 12th grade honors biology, honors science, and physics classes, and senior level college preservice science education classes. Students responded to questions aimed at revealing their epistemological views of the nature of science and their belief convictions on selected socio-scientific issues. A smaller subset of students was selected based on varying degrees of belief convictions about the socio-scientific issues and selected students paired to discuss their reasoning related to those issues while being exposed to anomalous data and information from each other and in response to epistemological probes of an interviewer. A qualitative design that entailed the derivation of taxonomic categories through discourse analysis utilizing samples of fallacious reasoning, conceptions of science, and sample performance of thought as a result of dialogic interaction was utilized. Additionally, appropriate nonparametric tests were performed to examine whether paired discourse resulted in changing belief convictions. By engaging students in discourse on socio-scientific issues, this study was aimed at elucidating how students' conceptions of the nature of science are reflected in their dialogic reasoning on moral and ethical issues. Taxonomic categories and samples of thought are presented and discussed, and implications for science education are addressed. (Contains 31 references.
Socioscientific issues in science education: labels, reasoning, and transfer
Cultural Studies of Science Education, 2009
This paper provides a critical analysis of some of the issues raised in Simonneaux and Simonneaux's analysis of socioscientific reasoning among a group of university level students negotiating three socioscientific issues. I first discuss the labels used to reference approaches in science education that prioritize socially relevant issues and the science related to these issues. I draw distinctions between approaches labeled science-technology-society (STS), the socioscientific issues framework, and les questions socialement vives (socially acute questions), which Simonneaux and Simonneaux introduce. Next, I discuss ways in which Simonneaux and Simonneaux's use socioscientific reasoning as an analytic construct varies with respect to its initial conceptualization. The primary distinctions include linguistic inconsistencies and the conceptual differences these language choices confer, expansion of the construct to subsume a broader range of practices, and issues related to unit of analysis (i.e., applying socioscientific reasoning as an analytic resource for assessing individual practice vs. group patterns). Finally, the issue of transfer of socioscientific reasoning is addressed. When considering the extent to which and how students leverage experiences and practice relative to the exploration of one socioscientific issue to inform their negotiation of another, I suggest that researchers and practitioners consider the distinction between the content of arguments advanced and underlying reasoning patterns. The tension between embedding science in meaningful, specific contexts and promoting forms of scientific literacy applicable to diverse, sociallyrelevant issues emerges as an important point of emphasis for educators interested in the socioscientific issues (or socially acute questions) movement.
Science Teachers’ Views of Socio Scientific Issues
The International Journal of Progressive Education, 2020
The aim of this study is to determine the awareness of science teachers about socio-scientific issues, the methods and techniques used in the teaching of socio-scientific issues, and the suggestions about effective teaching of socio-scientific issues. The sample of the study consisted of 75 science teachers (50 women, 25 men) who serve in various regions of Turkey. All participants answered the questionnaire consisting of open-ended questions. Afterward, interviews were conducted with 10 selected teachers. Content analysis was used to analyze the data. By the content analysis, it is aimed to reach the relations and concepts that can explain the collected data (Yildirim and Şimsek, 2013). When the findings of the open-ended questionnaire were examined, it was determined that teachers did not associate the definition and content of the concept of the socio-scientific issue with science and they have a low level of awareness about the content. In addition, it was observed that the teac...