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Students' engagement with Socioscientific issues: Use of sources of knowledge and attitudes
Journal of Research in Science Teaching
Abstract
The current study is about students' engagement with socioscientific issues (SSI). We explored the use of sources of knowledge about SSI and attitudes toward SSI among a sample of 1676 Dutch 8- to 16-year-old students. First, we developed a questionnaire that measured students' use of four sources of knowledge about SSI: Social Resources (online media use and talking with parents and friends), In-Class Resources (in-class talk and in-class offline media use), Visit Resources (visiting the zoo or a science museum with parents or school), and Offline Media Resources (engaging with issues or the news via books, magazines, newspapers, or TV). Second, we performed a latent profile analysis to explore students' patterns of use of these sources. This resulted in five profiles: Social Visitors (5.9%), Offline Media Consumers (10.6%), Media Discussers (14.3%), In-Class Users (21.0%), and Non-Users (48.3%). Third, we related these profiles to students' attitudes toward SSI, as measured with the Pupils' Attitudes toward Socioscientific Issues (PASSI) questionnaire. In line with the sources of knowledge profiles, the Non-Users felt and thought most negatively about engagement with SSI, while the Media Discussers showed the most positive attitudes. We believe that our exploration of the profiles adds to the discourse about students' socioscientific capital. Moreover, this study informs teachers about the resources that students may bring into the learning environment and their decision-making about SSI. The study concludes with practical suggestions about stimulating the use of sources of knowledge for certain groups of students and fostering positive attitudes toward engagement with SSI.
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... A didactic tool to transfer these ideas into the classroom and to promote scientific thinking are socioscientific issues (SSIs) [27]. These are social, complex, and open questions with a scientific dimension, such as global warming, genetically modified organisms, or the use of pesticides in agriculture [28][29][30]. SSIs can also be controversial because they are interpreted from different perspectives and have multiple solutions depending on personal values and priorities [28,30,31]. Students are likely already familiar with various controversial ecosocial issues because they see them in the media or even talk about them in class [29], as many of the real problems affecting our society are related to science [16,23,27,32]. ...
... SSIs can also be controversial because they are interpreted from different perspectives and have multiple solutions depending on personal values and priorities [28,30,31]. Students are likely already familiar with various controversial ecosocial issues because they see them in the media or even talk about them in class [29], as many of the real problems affecting our society are related to science [16,23,27,32]. Thus, using this tool requires students to discuss and critically reflect on their values, consider other perspectives, and make decisions in an argumentative manner [29,30,[33][34][35]. ...
... Students are likely already familiar with various controversial ecosocial issues because they see them in the media or even talk about them in class [29], as many of the real problems affecting our society are related to science [16,23,27,32]. Thus, using this tool requires students to discuss and critically reflect on their values, consider other perspectives, and make decisions in an argumentative manner [29,30,[33][34][35]. It also improves understanding of the nature of science [36] and inspires learners to take action [37]. ...
The teaching of environmental education must change to promote critical and reflective engagement with environmental problems. This study introduces a social science question for primary education focused on pharmaceuticals in surface water. The aims of the paper are to evaluate: the level of students' performance in arguing their answers in relation to the reference answer; their use and interpretation of provided materials from which they draw the evidence to justify their arguments; and the type of solutions they propose. This is done by analyzing the content of their written reports and the discourse during their group discussions. Statistical tests are also used to compare their individual and group performance. The results show that students perform at an in-termediate level. They use text and video effectively but struggle with graphs and maps. Their proposed solutions are contextually appropriate and consider multiple perspec-tives. Notably, their performance is similar whether working individually or in groups. All in all, this pedagogical intervention in the framework of scientific practices and transformative environmental education supports the development of scientific think-ing and sheds light on how students process information when addressing socio-environmental issues.
... Climate change, as a prominent SSI, presents complex scientific, social, and ethical dilemmas, requiring citizens to engage with underlying values and philosophies (Deveci & Karteri, 2022). However, students' attitudes toward climate change and other SSIs vary depending on their understanding, which is strongly influenced by classroom presentation and the pedagogical approaches used (Aşıkoğlu, 2023;Klaver et al., 2023). In Lebanon, where vulnerability to climate change is compounded by socioeconomic challenges, research on secondary school students' attitudes toward SSIs, including climate change, remains limited. ...
... The descriptive statistics presented in Table 4 are valuable in understanding student attitudes toward SSIs. Similarly, Klaver et al. (2023) found that students engaged with SSI knowledge perceived it as valuable and practical. ...
To cite this article: Baltikian, M., Kärkkäinen, S., & Kukkonen, J. (2025). Exploring secondary school students' attitudes toward socio-scientific issues with a focus on climate change attitudes. Article Info Abstract Article History
... and increases their interest in societal issues. Klaver et al. (2023) conducted a study evaluating the development and validity of the PASIS scale. The study found that the scale includes eight sub-factors and is a reliable tool for measuring students' views on SSIs. ...
... The PASIS scale evaluation showed that pre-service teachers' awareness of SSIs and their critical thinking skills improved. Klaver et al. (2023) examined how students use different information sources to understand their attitudes toward SSIs. ...
Students' perceptions of biotechnology products are crucial in terms of fostering informed consumers and citizens, developing education and curricula, and facilitating societal acceptance and innovation. These perceptions are influenced by accurate information regarding biotechnology products' health, environmental, and ethical dimensions. Moreover, students' positive or negative attitudes toward these products determine the rate of adoption of biotechnological innovations and societal resistance to them. The concept of "biotechnology" is addressed in conjunction with socioscientific issues in the 8th-grade Science Curriculum. This study examines students' knowledge and attitudes toward socioscientific concepts, particularly when they encounter dilemmas within the topic of biotechnology. In this context, the study investigates the relationship between middle school students' attitudes toward socioscientific issues and their preferences for biotechnology products. This research was conducted using a descriptive survey model. Data were collected from 87 eighth-grade students from two different middle schools in a province in the Black Sea region of Turkey. The participating students were selected using a simple random sampling method. Two scales were used as data collection instruments. The first instrument was the Biotechnology Literacy Inventory developed by Fırat et al. (2021), from which the Biotechnology Products Preference Scale, consisting of 13 items, was utilized. The second scale used was the Pupils' Attitudes towards Socioscientific Issues Scale, developed by Alkış Küçükaydın et al. (2021). Descriptive statistics were employed, and correlation analysis was conducted to determine the relationship between the two scales. Additionally, a t-test and one-way analysis of variance were used to examine whether students' preferences for biotechnology products showed significant differences based on their attitudes toward socioscientific issues. The findings indicated that there was no significant relationship between students' attitudes toward socioscientific issues and their parents' educational backgrounds. However, a significant difference was found between students' preferences for biotechnology products and their attitudes toward socioscientific issues. These findings suggest that students' attitudes toward biotechnology directly relate to their perspectives on scientific and ethical issues. The results of the study 11 TH INTERNATIONAL ARTEMİS SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH CONGRESS || CONGRESS PROCEEDINGS BOOK www.artemiscongress.com artemiscongress@gmail.com ISBN: 978-9952-8553-1-9 Doi: Https://Doi.org/10.30546/19023.978-9952-8553-1-9-.2025.9087. suggest that students' attitudes and choices regarding biotechnology products may be influenced by their approaches to scientific and ethical values. Future research should be conducted with larger samples, including different age groups, and should explore examples beyond those presented in textbooks.
... The SSI-based teaching context opens many opportunities for teachers to take the students' own questions as a starting point to stimulate their curiosity and creativity to formulate problems themselves, design investigations, deal with uncertainties, interpret results and learn from mistakes. Thus, teaching based on SSIs tends to be more student-driven as the students work on a question that they can personally relate to and feel emotionally engaged with (Klaver et al., 2022;Leung & Cheng, 2023;. Important working principles of scientific inquiry that govern research are that investigations are carried out in a systematic way and are characterised by a critical approach to primary and secondary data and the theories, models and methods used. ...
In this chapter, the following topics are presented and discussed:
● Falsifiability is one of the main characteristics of science that distinguishes it from
pseudoscience.
● It is important to understand that the social as well as the dynamic nature of
science contributes to its rigour.
● Pseudoscience relies on weak and selective evidence to support its claims.
● The use of scientific misconceptions in the science classroom can be a valuable tool
in helping students to distinguish science from pseudoscience.
... The PB-ISC can help us as researchers and practitioners assess the efficacy of science communication training, which is currently lacking in the field (Vickery et al., 2023). Additionally, this tool can help researchers and practitioners assess the efficacy of related instruction or experiences in adjacent topics that have been shown to support students' moral reasoning and scientific argumentation, like socioscientific issues (Zeidler and Nichols, 2009;Sadler et al., 2017;Romine et al., 2020;Owens et al., 2022;Klaver et al., 2023), citizen science (Bonney et al., 2014;Phillips et al., 2019;Roche et al., 2020), and science civic engagement (Garibay, 2015;Labov et al., 2019;Dauer et al., 2021;Alam et al., 2023). Finally, the PB-ISC could be used longitudinally once measurement invariance is established across timepoints, to assess students' growth in their inclusive science communication mindsets and skillsets in response to diverse training or experiences in science communication and community engagement. ...
This paper presents the development of and validity evidence for a multifactorial survey scale based on the Theory of Planned Behavior to measure STEM students' attitudes/norms, self-efficacy, behaviors, and behavioral intents in inclusive science communication.
... En el sentido anterior y para concluir, algunos estudios recientes estiman que la influencia en el aula cuando se trata de problemas sociales relevantes se realiza, de forma prioritaria, en forma de recursos sociales, recursos en clase, visitas y recursos multimedia sin conexión (Klaver et al., 2023). Esto parece coincidir con algunas ideas del alumnado del MPS (escasas, hemos de decir), y que, sin duda, habría que tratar de complejizar para el resto del alumnado y aún más en esa fase de formación inicial: "(Alumno 1) Adaptar los contenidos al medio socio-geográfico en el que se encuentren los alumnos es beneficioso… (Alumno 2) Estamos introduciendo preocupaciones que existen en la actualidad en la sociedad". ...
El trabajo exploratorio que presentamos analiza las percepciones que el alumnado del Máster de Profesorado de Secundaria de Física-Química posee sobre el Conocimiento del Contenido dentro de su conocimiento Profesional inicial. Este conocimiento se articula en torno a cuatro ámbitos de estudio: tipos de contenidos, su organización, temas transversales, fuentes y recursos. Los resultados muestran que subsisten diversas percepciones inconsistentes en el alumnado, aunque, en su conjunto, apuntan a un conocimiento inicial de transición en esos ámbitos de estudio.
... Educators and curriculum policymakers must be able to create project-based learning models that can support students to attract students to real-world problems (Şaşmazören et al., 2022) A learning method that emphasizes the use of social and scientific contexts in science learning using the Socio-scientific Issues (SSI) approach (Montgomery et al., 2022). This is because in its implementation, students are given the opportunity to investigate complex social issues with a scientific approach, so that they can develop a deeper understanding of these issues (Klaver et al., 2023). Socio scientific Issues (SSI) approach has strong relevance to the subjects of the IPAS Project. ...
Climate change is a complex global problem that requires understanding and action from students. Natural and Social Sciences projects can integrate climate change learning with social and scientific contexts. The preliminary study show that students do not yet have the environmental literacy skills needed to support science and technology projects learning. It also shows that students have difficulty understanding the concept of climate change and its implications for the environment. This research aims to determine the effect of differentiated learning with SSI to increase students ' understanding of climate change. The research method used is mixed methods research using the Exploratory Sequential Mixed Methods Design method. The research results show that implementing climate change differentiation learning with SSI can improve students ' environmental literacy skills. The results of the one-way ANOVA test have a significance value less than 0.05, where there is an increase after implementing differentiation learning. The findings of this research can integrate climate change learning with social and scientific contexts. SSI can help students understand complex issues that have significant social and scientific impact. This can motivate students to take action to overcome problems as an aspect of environmental literacy skills.
... This gap between traditional science education and authentic scientific practices underscores the need for innovative approaches to foster independent scientific inquiry among students. Implementing inclusive and community-oriented science education, as well as promoting engagement with socioscientific issues through various knowledge sources, can enhance students' attitudes and involvement in scientific exploration (Scheer & Orban, 2022;Klaver, Walma van der Molen, Sins & Guérin, 2022). By addressing barriers and enablers to authentic scientific experiences, educators can better prepare students for real-world scientific challenges and opportunities. ...
The objective of this research was to examine the impact of STEM activity based on Diy, Tinker and Maker frameworks on developing teacher interns' competency in science instructional design and implementations. These activities involve the integration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics principles, fostering self-regulated learning, creativity, and innovation among students. The research encompassed the design of five STEM activity modules, including a UVC Box Experiment, Digital pH Meter, Air Sensor, Startup & Rare Earth Board Game, and Motion Sensor activity, which were shared with teacher interns via Google Classroom using tutorial videos, slides, and additional materials to enhance their skills. An examination of 26 lesson plans from 13 teacher interns was carried out through content analysis, within a learning model guided by High Impact Practices (HIPs) spanning six domains: well-structured lessons, project-based learning, reflection, learning progression framework, student-centered approach, and Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK). The results showed that the application of the DIY, Tinker, and Maker framework through STEM activities effectively improves teacher interns' competencies in science instructional design and implementation. Particularly noteworthy was the gradual enhancement observed from the initial to the subsequent implementation across all HIPs domains, especially in showcasing TPACK. Nonetheless, the research also identified variations in competency levels, prompting contemplation among students. The importance of developing activities that stimulate student reflection emerged as a key point to consider. This indicates that STEM activities based on the concepts of DIY, Tinker, and Maker should emphasize such reflective practices. The insights obtained from this study could advance the enhancement of teacher interns' skills and encourage further exploration of the topics discussed.
... On the other hand, Be that as it may, measuring engagement is difficult because it comes in various forms, such as attendance to lectures, self-study, use of online/digital systems (Boulton et al., 2019), or classroom activities (Janna et al., 2019). Nonetheless, it is clear that engagement is dynamically embedded within individuals (Wang et al., 2016); it occurs at different levels (Estévez et al., 2021;Pan et al., 2018); it varies with groups (Janna et al., 2019;Klaver et al., 2023), including gender (Ganiyu, 2021;Javed et al., 2020), and it changes with contexts (Wester et al., 2021). In this study, the researcher broadly refers to engagement as the involvement of students with curricular and co-curricular activities in and out of the classroom. ...
The nexus between science engagement and scientific literacy is established in the literature. However, very little, if any, delved deeper into the interplay of perceived competence, attitudes toward science, and science engagement of different groups of learners at different levels. This study explored the interaction of perceived competence, attitudes, and science engagement among university students majoring in computer science and communications and media at one of the universities in the Kyrgyz Republic. Informed by quantitative survey research design, a five-point Likert scale questionnaire with items adopted from the literature was used to collect data through a print survey from 149 participants. Data collected underwent partial least squares-structural equation modeling using SmartPLS 4. Results revealed the overall significant positive direct effect of perceived competence on attitudes toward science but not on science engagement, the positive direct effect of attitudes toward science on science engagement, and its significant indirect effect between perceived competence and science engagement. A reflection on the importance of developing, strengthening, and scaffolding positive attitudes toward science during the teaching and learning process is provided.
... SSIs increase students' academic achievement by helping them learn content knowledge (Klaver et al. 2023) and are known to contribute to the development of many skills such as argumentation (Dawson and Venville 2022), critical thinking (Wang et al. 2017), reasoning and decision making (Gutierez 2015) and understanding the nature of science (Leung 2022). Although SSIs are an effective tool for developing 21 st century skills, they are not sufficiently and effectively included at the elementary and secondary school levels (Borgerding and Dagistan 2018). ...
Background
Teachers should have a reasonable socio-scientific reasoning (SSR) level, both because they are intellectual members of society and because of their duty to teach reasoning skills to their students, who will become responsible citizens of the future, as indicated in the curriculum.
Purpose
The study aims to examine the SSR level of science, social studies and primary teachers and determine the effect of different variables on SSRquantitatively.
Sample
The participants were composed of 297 primary teachers, 80 scienceteachers and 53 social studies teachers (430 teachers in total) who worked in official institutions affiliated with the Ministry of National Education in Turkey.
Design and method
The descriptive survey model, a quantitative research method, was used to achieve the research goal. The research data were obtained via the Socio-Scientific Reasoning Scale (SSRS).
Results and Conclusion
Results show that the SSR of the science, social studies and primary teachers are at a medium level and there is no statistically significant difference between the teaching branches. In the sub-dimensions of SSR, the highest level of reasoning was obtained by all the teachers from three different branches for the sub-dimension of perspective. Science and primary teachers had the lowest level of reasoning for the sub-dimension of complexity; social studies teachers had the lowest level of reasoning for the sub-dimensionof inquiry. While education level does not affect SSR, SSR varies statistically significantly depending on the variables of branch, gender and professional experience.
Suggestion
Practices should be implemented to improve teachers’ SSR, which can be conducted through in-service training opportunities. In addition, our results can be used while determining the composition of the teachers who will participate in the training.
... The development of educational materials infused with SSI content has witnessed a discernible surge in academic discourse in recent decades (Li and Guo 2021). This trajectory in media development has evolved from the employment of mass media such as newspapers or magazines (Dönmez 2023;Klaver et al. 2022) to multimedia approaches rooted in scientific websites (Kammerer, Gottschling, and Bråten 2021). Comics have begun to carve out a niche among educational media incorporating SSI content (Smith, Shen, and Jiang 2019). ...
The teaching of environmental education must change to promote critical, sustainable, and reflective engagement with environmental problems. This study introduces a social-science question for primary education focused on pharmaceuticals in surface water. The aims of the paper are to evaluate the level of students’ performance in arguing their answers in relation to the reference answer; their use and interpretation of provided materials from which they draw the evidence to justify their arguments; and the type of solutions they propose in the framework of sustainability. This is carried out by analyzing the content of their written reports and the discourse during their group discussions. Statistical tests are also used to compare their individual and group performance. The results show that students perform at an intermediate level. They use text and video effectively but struggle with graphs and maps. Their proposed solutions are contextually appropriate and consider multiple perspectives. Notably, their performance is similar whether working individually or in groups. All in all, this pedagogical intervention in the framework of scientific practices and transformative environmental education supports the development of scientific thinking and sheds light on how students process information when addressing socio-environmental issues.
The current study aims to evaluate, conceptualize, and provide a sample implementation of the culturo-techno-contextual approach (CTCA) on the basis of artificial intelligence as a socioscientific issue in teaching culture-based issues in science education. CTCA is a new approach with a conceptual history of ten years in which culture, technology, and context are handled together. A sample implementation process was created for this approach, which may be suitable for the teaching of other socioscientific issues (SSIs). It is hoped that this sample implementation will provide a guiding framework for researchers in the teaching of SSIs, which have an important place in science education. In the study, the implementation steps are named to make it more usable for researchers. As CTCA is still a relatively new approach, it is recommended that readers critically read these steps and detect possible shortcomings in the given sample implementation and address them in new studies, if any.
National governments are concerned about the disconnection of young people from science, which hampers the development of a scientifically literate society promoting sustainable development, wellbeing, equity, and a green economy. Introduced in 2015 alongside Agenda 2030, the “open schooling” approach aims at enhancing students' science connections through real‐life problem solving with families and scientists, necessitating solid evidence for scalability and sustainability. This study conceptualizes “science connection,” a term yet underexplored, as the integration of science's meaning and purpose into personal, social, and global actions informed by socioscientific thinking. It details a novel 32‐item self‐report questionnaire developed and validated from insights of 85 teachers into “science connection”‐enhanced learning. A new consensual qualitative analysis method with visual and textual snapshots enabled developing quantitative measures from the qualitative findings with rigor. The multilanguage instrument provided just‐in‐time actionable data, enhancing the immediacy and applicability of the feedback to 2082 underserved students aged 11–18 across five countries participating in open schooling activities using the CARE‐KNOW‐DO model. This innovative feature supports open science and responsible open research, offering real‐time insights and fostering immediate educational impact. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed five components of science connection: Confidence and aspiration in science; Fun participatory science with teachers, family, and experts; Active learning approaches; Involvement in‐and‐outside school science activities; and Valuing science's role to life‐and‐society. Many students felt connected to science— Brazil: 80%, Spain: 79%, Romania: 73%, Greece: 70%, UK: 57%— with boys: 75%, girls: 73%, nonbinary students: 56%. These differences need in‐depth research. Results suggest that science connections decline from the primary to secondary education, but the CARE‐KNOW‐DO model may reengage older students. A robust science connection enhances scientific literacy and builds science capital. This instrument aids policymakers, educators, and learners in identifying factors that facilitate or impede students' engagement with science for sustainable development efforts.
Teaching science in an age of disinformation and misinformation requires empowering students to address inaccurate information in evidence‐based ways. Science communication scholarship highlights the growing importance of inclusive and relational approaches for addressing misinformation. Thus, we developed, implemented, and evaluated an interdisciplinary, graduate‐level course for students in STEM, journalism/communication, and public health to learn to address misinformation using community‐engaged, evidence‐based approaches. We used the Theory of Planned Behavior as a theoretical framework for our mixed‐methods analysis of the efficacy of this course, assessing both the behaviors that students planned to utilize in community‐engaged science communication to address misinformation, as well as the attitudes, norms, and perceived behavioral control that influenced these planned behaviors. Quantitative self‐report metrics indicated that this curriculum increased students' subjective norms for misinformation correction as well as perceived behavioral control of science communication and science civic engagement. Thematic analysis of qualitative student interview data showed that the course helped students increase their plans for inclusive approaches to addressing misinformation. This study indicates the importance of community‐engaged curriculum to develop the mindset and self‐efficacy necessary for scientists‐in‐training to address misinformation in their communities.
Engagement with socioscientific issues (SSI) is seen as an important citizenship goal of SSI-based science education. In this experimental study, Dutch students (age 8 to 13) participated in lesson series in which they learned about and discussed SSI, such as issues related to the textile industry and wastewater. Attitudes toward SSI indicating engagement were measured among relatively large experimental (n = 236) and control (n = 192) groups prior to and after the intervention. Multilevel analyses showed a positive effect of SSI-based teaching on collective efficacy and no effects on the other seven attitude components. Furthermore, we investigated whether the effects depended on students’ SSI-related resources. Students’ profiles for use of sources of knowledge (USK) moderated the effect of condition on self-efficacy and—depending on analysis type—on personal relevance, positive feelings, and collective efficacy. The positive impact occurred mainly for students with low USK. We discuss implications thereof for SSI education.
In this position paper, we introduce the concept of socioscientific capital (SSC) to denote students' resources that unequivocally play a part when students learn about and make decisions regarding socioscientific issues (SSIs). Students use a variety of resources when they engage with SSI. Our conceptualization of SSC expands on current conceptualizations to refer to resources related to both the scientific and the non-scientific aspects of SSI, including internal resources (personal experiences, values, attitudes, beliefs, knowledge, and skills), external resources (family, friends, communities, and media), and meta-level resources (dominant frames and cultures). Aiming to strengthen SSI education, we argue for taking into account how students' resources impact their SSI-related learning and decision-making. To this end, insight into students' SSC is needed and is imperative for teachers. By bringing together literature about SSI education and literature about students' resources, we provide a conceptual view on students' SSC and describe implications for SSI education.
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Sociocultural diversity in classrooms can result in inequality, when discontinuities between school and home make children perform below their abilities. Funds of knowledge/identity theory makes a plea for building on the skills and knowledge that students acquire in their families, communities and peer groups, and that may not be recognised by teachers, when they are from different sociocultural backgrounds to their students. In a collaborative action research project the authors investigated how primary school teachers can use students’ funds of knowledge/identity (FoK/I) in their superdiverse classrooms. Data were collected through pre-structured logbooks, teacher interviews and focus groups. The analyses result in a framework that suggests ways to find students’ FoK, and that categorises FoK/I-related teaching practices along two dimensions: (1) individual students’ resources vs. collective resources; and (2) scope of the teaching activities. The authors also identify sources of FoK/I and discuss the pedagogical competences teachers need to integrate FoK/I into their teaching.
Many science educators have argued in favour of including socioscientific issues (SSI) in general, and ethical issues in particular, in school science. However, there have been a number of objections to this proposal, and it is widely acknowledged that such teaching places additional demands on science teachers. This study examined the curricula, textbooks and views of both student teachers and established teachers in England and in Germany regarding the teaching of ethical issues in secondary school science, particularly the ethical issues surrounding animal tests. Analysis of the curriculum documents for secondary or upper secondary school science showed that in both countries, ethical considerations feature strongly. However, in both countries, the overall treatments in the school textbooks of the ethical issues of animal testing were generally ‘thin’, and little opportunity was given for students to consider different ethical frameworks. The teacher and student teacher interviews revealed that interviewees generally gave ethical issues less emphasis than fundamental science. A number of interviewees referred to a lack of appropriate teaching material, and many of them also had concerns that such teaching could give rise to classroom management issues or that they might be accused of indoctrinating their students. Given the increasing acknowledgement of the need for school science to address so-called wicked socioscientific problems, these findings are a concern. We end with recommendations for curricula, for textbooks and for teacher education.
Samenvatting
Om een actueel beeld te krijgen van angstreacties van kinderen op het NOS Jeugdjournaal is een survey afgenomen onder 892 kinderen (9-12 jaar). Bijna alle participanten (94.5%) kijken regelmatig naar het NOS Jeugdjournaal. Het merendeel van deze kinderen ervaart angstreacties door dit nieuws, maar gemiddeld worden ze slechts een klein beetje bang. Vooral meisjes en jongere kinderen lijken kwetsbaarder voor angstaanjagende nieuwsinhoud.
Background: Assets-based research is becoming more widespread and may be particularly important as we continue to work towards equity within engineering education. It is important to understand how assets-based theoretical frameworks have been taken up in STEM education research in recent years. Purpose: We examine how funds of knowledge (Moll et al., 1992), an assets-based framework, is applied in STEM education and can be used to advance engineering education research. Funds of knowledge was created to help K–12 teachers adapt their classroom teaching and curriculum to better serve their students. Scope/Method: Scoping review procedures resulted in 42 qualifying studies. We analyzed characteristics of the qualifying studies and qualitatively coded the use of the funds of knowledge framework. Codes included the following categories: identification, curriculum, teaching, and learning. Conclusions: Funds of knowledge is prevalent in the STEM education literature. Studies tended to be qualitative, with observations and interviews as the most common research methods. Research often took place both in the classroom and at after-school programs. Most studies centered on K–12 students and teachers, often focusing on how to improve teaching, curriculum and lesson plans, or the connection between the community and schools. Funds of knowledge may assist curriculum change in K–16 if used more widely in engineering education, which could have important implications for equity in engineering. Gaps and opportunities in the application of funds of knowledge in STEM education include assessing the efficacy of funds of knowledge interventions on students by connecting to student learning outcomes or theories of identity, self-efficacy, and belonging.
The emergence and widespread of antibiotic-resistant pathogenic microorganisms are of great individual and societal relevance. Due to the complex and multilayered nature of the topic, antibiotic resistance (ABR) is the object of concern for several scientific fields, such as microbiology or medicine, and encompasses a broad range of political, economic, and social aspects. Thus, the issue related to antibiotic-resistant bacterial diseases offers an excellent platform for designing and implementing the teaching and learning of socio-scientific issues (SSI). We created a SSI-based curriculum unit for use in secondary science classrooms by developing a collaborative partnership between education researchers and microbiologists. This classroom environment allows students to explore and negotiate ABR as a societal and scientific phenomenon. For this purpose, we leveraged role-playing within the SSI-based unit as a productive context for engaging students in learning opportunities that provide multiple perspectives on ABR and the complex interplay of its accelerators. This case-based paper describes Austrian school students’ experiences from their participation in a SSI-embedded role-playing classroom environment and subsequent activities that included a mini congress with a poster presentation and a panel discussion. An open-ended questionnaire-based assessment tool was used to examine the situational characteristics of the students’ work. To assess students’ contributions, we applied a qualitative content analysis design and identified cognitive and affective outcomes. The students’ learning experiences demonstrate that they considered the content – the social complexities of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and associated diseases – exciting and very topical. The students perceived that learning about ABR is relevant for their future and involves both individual and societal responsibility for action. Although the curriculum unit and its assignments were described as labor-intensive, it became apparent that the role-playing setting has the potential to inform students about multiple stakeholder positions concerning ABR. Concerning the promotion of science practices, almost all students claimed that they learned to organize, analyze, evaluate, and present relevant information. Moreover, the students affirmed that they learned to argue from the perspective of their assigned roles. However, the students did not clarify whether they learned more through this SSI-based classroom instruction than through conventional science teaching approaches.
The focus of this paper is on the Science-Technology-Society (STS) initiative, developed in the 1980s, subsequently expanded to STSE to acknowledge environmental concerns and later expanded further to include the provision of opportunities for students to confront socioscientific issues (SSI), often of a controversial and certainly of a topical nature.
The article focuses on the key issues that need to be addressed in building such a curriculum, including selection of appropriate SSI, ensuring access to the necessary scientific knowledge, developing the necessary media literacy to access other material relevant to the issues, fostering the political awareness needed for critical interpretation of issues and building the ethical understanding needed to address the complex issues raised by controversial SSI. Teachers introducing SSI into the curriculum need to be sensitive to the profound emotions that can be generated among students encountering controversial issues for the first time. An understanding of emotional intelligence , emotional literacy and emotional competence is essential, and building students’ capacities in these matters is crucial to helping them deal with potentially stressful and disconcerting learning situations that will inevitably arise.
I argue that a curriculum to build students’ capacity for sociopolitical action on SSI can be developed through a 4-stage model: (1) appreciating the societal and environmental impact of scientific and technological change, and recognizing that science and technology are, to some extent, culturally determined; (2) recognizing that decisions about scientific and technological development are taken in pursuit of particular interests, that benefits accruing to some may be at the expense of others and that developments in science and technology are inextricably linked with the distribution of wealth and power; (3) addressing controversy, clarifying values, resolving ethical dilemmas, formulating and developing one’s own views and justifying them through discussion and argument; and (4) preparing for and taking action on socioscientific and environmental issues. Stage 4 is further divided into learning about action, learning through action and learning from action. Learning about action focuses on learning the skills and strategies of sociopolitical action through movies, biographies and autobiographies, case studies and simulations, role-play and dramatic reconstructions. Learning through action comprises direct involvement in action-oriented projects outside the classroom that are likely to have tangible outcomes and consequences.
The prime purpose of this action-oriented approach to addressing complex and controversial SSI is to enable young citizens to look critically at the society we have and the values that sustain it, and to ask what can and should be changed in order to achieve a more socially just democracy and bring about more environmentally sustainable lifestyles. It almost goes without saying that teachers who introduce SSI into the curriculum need to be sensitive to the need to assist students in dealing with potentially stressful and disconcerting learning situations. It is here that notions of emotional intelligence , emotional literacy and emotional competence can be helpful. Furthermore, there are many reasons why the translation of this kind of curriculum rhetoric into practical action in real classrooms will be extraordinarily complex and difficult. Such a radical change in the nature of the school curriculum puts a whole raft of new demands on teachers; it challenges many of the assumptions on which schooling is traditionally based; it is predicated on a commitment to bringing about extensive and wide-ranging social change at local, regional, national and international levels.
Knowledge that students acquire outside school may not be recognized in school when teachers have different social-cultural backgrounds than their students. The theory of funds of knowledge/identity (FoK/I) makes a plea for teaching that draws on students' knowledge, skills and experiences. We investigated how using students' FoK/I affected their personal and social functioning and the social cohesion in the classroom, using a mixed-method quasi-experimental design. Thirteen teachers applied several ways of drawing on their students' FoK/I; eight teachers and their students participated as a control group. Student questionnaire data were collected (N = 299; pre-post control group) and students from the intervention group were interviewed (N = 67). Teachers from the intervention group completed logbooks and were interviewed individually twice during the intervention, and in a focus group setting after the intervention. The quantitative data did not show significant effects. However, teachers and students reported effects on students' engagement, learning behavior, learning attitudes, collaboration skills, self-confidence, general well-being in the classroom, ambitions and perspective taking. Also positive effects on the climate in the classroom were reported: students getting to know each other better, increased respect among students, improved interactions, increased involvement in learning, and a more positive atmosphere in the classroom.
Many urgent problems that societies currently face—from climate change to a global pandemic—require citizens to engage with scientific information as members of democratic societies as well as to solve problems in their personal lives. Most often, to solve their epistemic aims (aims directed at achieving knowledge and understanding) regarding such socio-scientific issues, individuals search for information online, where there exists a multitude of possibly relevant and highly interconnected sources of different perspectives, sometimes providing conflicting information. The paper provides a review of the literature aimed at identifying (a) constraints and affordances that scientific knowledge and the online information environment entail and (b) individuals' cognitive and motivational processes that have been found to hinder, or conversely, support practices of engagement (such as critical information evaluation or two-sided dialogue). Doing this, a conceptual framework for understanding and fostering what we call online engagement with scientific information is introduced, which is conceived as consisting of individual engagement (engaging on one's own in the search, selection, evaluation, and integration of information) and dialogic engagement (engaging in discourse with others to interpret, articulate and critically examine scientific information). In turn, this paper identifies individual and contextual conditions for individuals' goal-directed and effortful online engagement with scientific information.
This paper presents the results of a large-scale study to validate a questionnaire that measures pupils’ attitudes towards socioscientific issues (the PASSI questionnaire). We define socioscientific issues (SSI) as those topics that are about complex societal and technological developments that may induce ethical dilemmas. In this study, the term attitudes describes a combination of attitude components that relate to pupils’ engagement with SSI. Based on a literature review within social and educational psychology and sociology, on topics such as attitude development, scientific citizenship, social or civic engagement, and SSI teaching and learning, we developed a framework that describes several underlying components of pupils’ attitudes towards SSI. These components were translated into nine scales that comprise the PASSI. Results of a validation study among 1370 pupils (age 8–15), using exploratory factor analyses on subsample 1 and subsequently confirmatory factor analyses on subsample 2, indicated an eight-factor structure that showed good convergent and discriminant validity. Furthermore, the PASSI instrument showed adequate measurement invariance for boys and girls, pupils in primary and secondary education, and for pupils at different secondary educational tracks. The results are discussed in terms of directions for future research to further investigate the validity of the PASSI questionnaire. To conclude, the PASSI questionnaire validly measures eight attitudes towards SSI and could serve as a tool that raises awareness of pupils’ engagement with SSI. It can be used by researchers and teachers as a diagnostic instrument, to compare groups, and to study effects of SSI education.
We still have only a limited understanding of the effectiveness of schools in promoting citizenship, the factors explaining this effectiveness and the way in which these aspects interact. Using elaborate cross-sectional data from students, teachers, team leaders and school leaders at 78 Dutch secondary schools, this study empirically examines a school effectiveness model of citizenship education in order to achieve a more comprehensive explanation of citizenship competence acquisition. Using multilevel structural equation models, we analyze direct and indirect school-level predictors of student knowledge, attitudes and self-evaluated skills regarding citizenship. Four aspects of citizenship education are examined: the school’s policies regarding citizenship education, its teaching practices, and its professional and pedagogical learning environment (i.e., teaching community and classroom climate). With respect to school policies, positive effects are found for the attention paid to citizenship education in staff meetings. The professional learning environment is related to students’ citizenship competences mainly indirectly, via the average classroom climate. Effects of teaching practices vary: more emphasis on monitoring is more frequently found at schools with lower average levels of citizenship competences, whereas schools that let students choose their own topics in class have on average higher levels of citizenship competences.
Galvanized by Greta Thunberg’s idea for Friday school strikes, “climate strikes” emerged in 2018 and 2019 as a form of youth social movement demanding far-reaching action on climate change. Youths have taken various actions to combat climate change, but academics have not paid sufficient attention to youth climate mobilization. This study thus examines the questions of what has motivated youth to mobilize and how they have shaped global climate politics and governance. This study focuses particularly on the narrative of youth activists to address their understanding of climate change and their ideas regarding how to respond to it. Youth collective action has succeeded in problematizing global climate inaction and inertia and in framing climate change from a justice perspective, but activists have faced limitations in converting their moral legitimacy into the power required for sweeping changes. Overall, this study demonstrates the emergence of young people as agents of change in the global climate change arena and the urgency of engaging them in climate change governance and policymaking.
Learning science in the context of socio-scientific issues (SSI) is widely advocated for achieving the goal of scientific literacy that values using science in daily lives. While prior research suggests that SSI-based learning can promote students’ disciplinary knowledge and practices, less is known about students’ perceptions of SSI-based learning and how to support students in considering the epistemic aspects of SSI learning. In this study, we seek to address the research gap by examining students’ perceptions of their learning and how they appropriate the epistemic tools for systems thinking in an issue-based unit on the regulation of e-cigarettes. We used semi-structured interviews from 33 students in a midwestern U.S. high school as our primary data. The results suggest that students in general held positive attitudes towards SSI-based learning experiences and found SSI work to be 1) relevant, 2) interesting, 3) promoting agency, and 4) beneficial for their science learning. Also, we found that students differed in how they appropriated the epistemic tools for systems thinking ranging from lack of appropriation, to appropriating surface features, and to appropriating epistemic purposes. We conclude the paper by discussing how engaging students in meaningful learning activities may support students’ productive engagement in SSI learning.
This article examines the role of teachers, parents, and friends in stimulating the development of societal interest among adolescents. It assesses the extent teachers can compensate for societal interest differences among adolescents that arise due to socioeconomic differences. The YeS panel study is used, with 587 students aged 13–18 assessed annually over a six-year period (2010–2015) and uses latent growth curve modeling (LGCM). Our findings indicate that awareness-raising by each of the three groups contributes to the development of societal interest among adolescents, with teachers being the most influential socializing agent. Teachers were more influential societal interest development among adolescents from less privileged homes, confirming our hypothesis that schools can compensate for societal interest differences.
This article seeks to identify the role of science education in promoting an active, scientifically literate, citizenry ready to address sustainable development goals as envisaged by the United Nations (2015). In so doing, a conceptual model is put forward to address citizenry development, extending beyond an informed scientific and technological decision making ability and encompassing constructive activities addressing sustainable development at the local, national and global level. The operationalisation of the model builds on an initial student-relevant, societal issue-related contextualisation involving STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) while focusing on developing science conceptual learning. The model extends to not only considering socio-scientific issues, but seeks to promote trans-contextualisation beyond the school setting, seeking to raise awareness of an active informed citizenry, related to environmental, economic and social sustainability. The components of active informed citizenry are described and a trans-contextual science teaching example based on the model is put forward in this article.
We engaged 47 eighth-grade students in a newly developed learning environment that integrates mobile augmented reality (AR) technology to support students’ learning of nuclear energy use and radiation pollution, a topic related to a socioscientific issue (SSI) that involves complex reasoning considering scientific evidence and multiple perspectives. We employ the partial least squares structural equation modeling to investigate how the students’ context-specific epistemic justification and prior knowledge contributed to their engagement in the learning environment and socioscientific reasoning (SSR) performance after the learning. Data collected include students’ responses to the knowledge pretest that assessed students’ prior knowledge related to the SSI, the pretest survey that measured students’ context-specific epistemic justifications, the Cognitive and Emotional Engagement Survey (CEES) right after the end of the AR activities that measured students’ self-reported cognitive and emotional engagement, and the posttest that measured students’ socioscientific reasoning performance. The results indicate that students’ context-specific epistemic justifications can predict their engagement in the environment, and that prior knowledge and belief in justification by authority can predict students’ SSR performance, but in different directions. The results provide insights into how to support students with different personal characteristics to learn with AR technology about SSI, and contribute to a model of personal epistemology within the environment of integrating AR technology for the learning of SSI.
The purpose of this study is to examine the quantity and quality of the data component used by seventh-grade students in their arguments related to issues unique to the city of Bolu: Seben Lake, chicken coops, leather tanneries, base stations, and Hydroelectric Power Plants (HPP). Three different study groups, with 12 participants in each group (in total 36 participants), were the subject of this research, which was conducted over a total of 10 weeks. Each study group interacted with a different data source: The outdoor group collected data on field trips, the newspaper group read and examined related articles in the press, and the presentation group listened to visual presentations. The groups reflected the data obtained from their data sources to the argumentation implementations. The resulting of content analyses, based on the items in Toulmin's (1958) argument model showed that, of the total of 847 data components generated in the participants' argumentations, the newspaper group used the most data in their arguments, while the presentation group employed the least data. The outdoor and presentation groups generally utilized data based on the data cited in their data source, while the newspaper group used more data based on their daily life experiences. The highest amount of data was employed in relation to the issue of leather tanneries based on data acquired during field trips in the outdoor group, in relation to HPP based on visual presentations in the presentation group, and in relation to Seben Lake based on daily life experiences in the newspaper group. In conclusion, the quantity and the quality of the data component used in students' arguments with regard to local socioscientific issues changed according to the data source with which they interacted and the content of the socioscientific issue. In light of this, a few suggestions are made in this paper's conclusion.
Studies show that adolescents that follow a higher educational track have more positive experiences than those of lower levels with aspects of democracy, such as decision-making or discussions. In our study, we focus on how adolescents from different educational tracks evaluate the various possibilities to experience democracy in daily life, and whether school is compensating for any difference therein. Data were gathered by interviewing 40 adolescents at two points in time (eighth and tenth grade). The results suggest that, especially in the later phase of secondary education, according to the experiences of adolescents it is apparent that school exacerbates instead of decreases social differences in society. Those in the higher educational track experience more often than those in the lower track having discussions and being encouraged to be socially and politically engaged. We discuss opportunities for teachers and for citizenship education to strengthen democratic socialization in both educational tracks.
This open access book presents the results from the second cycle of the IEA International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS 2016). Using data from 24 countries in Asia, Europe and Latin America, the study investigates the ways in which young people are prepared to undertake their roles as citizens in a range of countries in the second decade of the 21st century. It also responds to the enduring and emerging challenges of educating young people in a world where contexts of democracy and civic participation continue to change. New developments of this kind include the increase in the use of social media by young people as a tool for civic engagement, growing concerns about global threats and sustainable development, as well as the role of schools in fostering peaceful ways of interaction between young people. Besides enabling the evaluation of a wide range of aspects of civic and citizenship education, including those related to recent developments in a number of countries, the inclusion of test and questionnaire material from the first cycle of the study in 2009 allows the results from ICCS 2016 to be used to examine changes in civic knowledge, attitudes and engagement over seven years.
This chapter addresses Research Question 3 of the ICCS 2016 assessment framework (Schulz, Ainley, Fraillon, Losito, & Agrusti, 2016): What is the extent of students’ engagement in different spheres of society and which factors within or across countries are related to it?
This review examines how natural history museums (NHMs) can enhance learning and engagement in science, particularly for school-age students. First, we describe the learning potential of informal science learning institutions in general, then we focus on NHMs. We review the possible benefits of interactions between schools and NHMs, and the potential for NHMs to teach about challenging issues such as evolution and climate change and to use digital technologies to augment more traditional artefacts. We conclude that NHMs can provide students with new knowledge and perspectives, with impacts that can last for years. Through visits and their on-line presence, NHMs can help students see science in ways that the school classroom rarely can, with opportunities to meet scientists, explore whole topic exhibitions, engage with interactive displays and employ digital technologies both in situ and to support learning in the school science classroom. Although these interactions have the potential to foster positive cognitive, affective and social outcomes for students, there is a lack of reliable measures of the impact of NHM experiences for students. Opportunities to foster relationships between NHM staff and teachers through professional development can help articulate shared goals to support students’ learning and engagement.
In this research, it was aimed to investigate the decisions of gifted students regarding particular socio-scientific issues with their warrants and information sources on those decisions. The research was qualitative in nature and the participants were 36 (21 male, 15 female) elementary school students who had training at Sinop Science and Art Centre. The data source of the research was a written from consisted nine open ended questions regarding four socio-scientific issues and the data obtained were analysed by content analysis technique. The findings of the study revealed that students concluded differently in different socio-scientific issues with varying warrants and considered media as the primary information source in that process. Media was followed by authority, education and social environment as other information sources. Based on those results, it was proposed to develop instructional activities for Science and Art Centres aiming the integration of media literacy with socio-scientific issues.
This review covers research on attitudes and attitude change published between 2010 and 2017. We characterize this period as one of significant progress toward an understanding of how attitudes form and change in three critical contexts. The first context is the person, as attitudes change in connection to values, general goals, language, emotions, and human development. The second context is social relationships, which link attitude change to the communicator of persuasive messages, the social media, and culture. The third context is sociohistorical and highlights the influence of unique events, including sociopolitical, economic, and climatic occurrences. In conclusion, many important recent findings reflect the fact that holism, with a focus on situating attitudes within their personal, social, and historical contexts, has become the zeitgeist of attitude research during this period. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Psychology Volume 69 is January 4, 2018. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
There is a divide between what students are being taught within the classroom and what they experience in the real world (National Research Council 1996, 2009). Schooling is necessary insufficient enough to support lifelong science literacy, emphasizing the necessity of alternative learning environments and approaches for learning about science (Falk and Heimlich 2009; Falk et al. 2007). In England and Switzerland, educators are beginning to bring controversial environmental topics into the science classroom that afford students the opportunity to discuss issues-based science (SSI), connecting what they are learning to real world issues such as nuclear power and rainforest deforestation (Rickinson and Lundholm 2008). When students engage with these issues they might also take a larger role within conservation.
The theory of planned behavior (TPB) is a prominent framework for predicting and explaining behavior in a variety of domains. The theory is also increasingly being used as a framework for conducting behavior change interventions. In this meta-analysis, we identified 82 papers reporting results of 123 interventions in a variety of disciplines. Our analysis confirmed the effectiveness of TPB-based interventions, with a mean effect size of .50 for changes in behavior and effect sizes ranging from .14 to .68 for changes in antecedent variables (behavioral, normative, and control beliefs, attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and intention). Further analyses revealed that the interventions’ effectiveness varied for the diverse behavior change methods. In addition, interventions conducted in public and with groups were more successful than interventions in private locations or focusing on individuals. Finally, we identified gender and education as well as behavioral domain as moderators of the interventions’ effectiveness.
Concepts such as “porous boundaries” and “low thresholds” appear frequently in the literature on online political engagement. Social media, it is argued, are characterized by less distinct boundaries between non-political and political activities, thereby lowering thresholds into political engagement. This argument is analyzed and empirically tested. Relying on a five-wave panel study among Swedish adolescents, we provide unique insights into the levels and development of political engagement in online political information, interaction, production, and collective action. In sum, the findings show that, for a majority, social interaction in social media coincides with engagement in political information and interaction, while few are engaged in production and collective action. Second, the study provides limited support to the idea that low thresholds in social media promote patterns of tune-in, tune-out political engagement over time. Finally, social interaction in social media has clear effects on online political engagement beyond political socialization and motivation factors.
Socio-scientific teaching and learning (SSI-TL) has been suggested as an effective approach for supporting meaningful learning in school contexts; however, limited tools exist to support the work of designing and implementing this approach. In this paper, we draw from a series of four design based research projects that have produced SSI curriculum materials, research findings, and design insights. The paper describes the creation and evolution of a model for SSI-TL. The model highlights a sequence of learning experiences that should be featured in SSI-TL and the kinds of learning objectives that should result. Student learning experiences should include encountering a focal SSI; engaging in science practices, disciplinary core ideas and crosscutting concepts as well as socio-scientific reasoning practices; and synthesizing key ideas and practices through a culminating exercise. The proposed learning objectives align with Next Generation Science Standards and also reflect the important social dimensions of SSI.
Learning happens through participation in formal community events and informal community activities. However, learning activities that take place in and out of school are often not mutually recognised. Funds of knowledge projects foster new ways of exchanging learning experiences in and out of school. Funds of identity can be uncovered by teachers through the collection of artefacts, interests and practices that are valuable to children. Specifically, videos, photographs, self-portraits, bilingual texts, diaries or ‘shoeboxes of significant items’ are some of the resources that can be used to make a learner’s funds of identity more visible and tangible in the classroom. The main aim of this paper is to illustrate a number of resources and strategies that help to identify and mobilise funds of identity. These funds of identity are integral for educators in order to develop meaningful and contextualised lessons.
Modern biotechnology has a large and rapidly increasing impact on society. New advances in genetics, stem cells and other areas hold great potential for human health but also presenting socioscientific issues that commonly divide public opinion. While knowledge is necessary to develop informed opinions about biotechnology, they may also be influenced by polarized discourse and fiction in the media. Here, we examined prior knowledge about and attitudes towards health-related biotechnological applications in Year 10 high school students from Western Australia using online questionnaires. The impact of teaching on students’ understanding was tested by repeating the questionnaire after a lesson. Finally, students’ argumentation skills were examined by recording responses to statements about biotechnological applications. We found that, prior to instruction, most students exhibited a reasonable understanding of biotechnology. There was little evidence for alternative conceptions, and instruction led to a diversification in understanding. Attitudes towards biotechnology were generally positive but varied. Despite interest in biotechnological issues, argument for positions was generally cognitive-affective in nature. Consequently, biotechnology is a relevant topic for science education, and presents excellent opportunities to build on pre-existing knowledge. Rather than expanding students’ knowledge, our results suggest educators should focus on deepening existing understanding and strengthening argumentation skills.
There is a paucity of research In Australia on the nature erf young people s attitudes, knowledge and actions. This paper reports on Ihe findings from one such study of Australian high school students. The research was based on a survey of 5 688 students from Melbourne arid Brisbane. These young people identified protection of the environment as tha most important problem In Australia and strongly supported ma talief systems characteristic of an 'environmental paradigm', Despite this, the majority displayed relatively low level? of knowledge of Key environmental concepts, and were invoked in little environmental action-taking outside of household anrvcties. Differences am reported between; students from Melbourne and Qrisbene: gins and boys; high performing and general schools: and teachers and students. The paper concludes with a discussion of some Implications for environmental education in Australia.
Unproctored, web-based assessments supposedly reduce social desirability distortions in self-report questionnaires because of an increased sense of privacy among participants. Three random-effects meta-analyses focusing either on social desirability (k = 30, total N = 3,746), the Big Five of personality (k = 66, total N = 2,951), or psychopathology (k = 96, total N = 16,034) compared social desirability distortions of self-reports across computerized and paper-and-pencil administration modes. Overall, a near-zero effect, Δ = 0.01, was obtained that did not indicate less socially desirable responding in computerized assessments. Moreover, moderator analyses did not identify differential effects for proctored and unproctored procedures. Thus, paper-and-pencil and computerized administrations of self-report scales yield comparable mean scores. Unproctored web-based surveys do not offer an advantage with regard to socially desirable responding in self-report questionnaires.
One of the most frequently cited goals for science education over the years has been to provide students with the understanding and skills necessary to engage in science-related civic issues. Despite the repeated insistence on the importance of this kind of democratic participation, there has been little effort in the research community to either define just what science-related civic engagement entails or to ask whether the research or practices in the field are suited to accomplishing this goal. In this paper we take a first step toward this end by offering a precise definition of science-related civic engagement drawing on work from the fields of philosophy and political theory. We argue that such engagement can be found in instances requiring the both the use and production of scientific knowledge and examine the various avenues of that engagement. We then explore some implications such a definition might have for thinking about science education research and practice.
Despite the importance of understanding how the human reproductive system works, adolescents worldwide exhibit weak conceptual understanding, which leads to serious risks, such as unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. Studies focusing on the development and evaluation of inquiry-based learning interventions, promoting the knowledge of human reproduction, are very few. The purpose of this study
was to evaluate the effectiveness of an inquiry-based intervention on human reproduction in relation to students’ gender, prior knowledge and motivation for learning in biology. Data collection methods included students’ pre- and post-tests, evaluating students’ conceptual understanding regarding human reproduction, and measurements of students’ motivation employing the Motivational Learning Environment survey. The sample for the pre- and post-test conceptual understanding data included the whole population of the 7th graders in Cyprus (n = 6465). Students’ motivation data were collected from a representative sample of the entire 7th graders population (n = 946 students). Statistical analyses indicated a statistically significant
increase in students’ conceptual understanding as well as in their motivation for learning in biology. However, students’ gender, prior knowledge and initial motivation for learning in biology seemed to mediate the effectiveness of the inquiry-based intervention. All of these variables are deemed, therefore, as of great importance for the design, implementation and evaluation of biology teaching interventions.
In this position paper, we introduce the concept of socioscientific capital (SSC) to denote students' resources that unequivocally play a part when students learn about and make decisions regarding socioscientific issues (SSIs). Students use a variety of resources when they engage with SSI. Our conceptualization of SSC expands on current conceptualizations to refer to resources related to both the scientific and the non-scientific aspects of SSI, including internal resources (personal experiences, values, attitudes, beliefs, knowledge, and skills), external resources (family, friends, communities, and media), and meta-level resources (dominant frames and cultures). Aiming to strengthen SSI education, we argue for taking into account how students' resources impact their SSI-related learning and decision-making. To this end, insight into students' SSC is needed and is imperative for teachers. By bringing together literature about SSI education and literature about students' resources, we provide a conceptual view on students' SSC and describe implications for SSI education.
The article is readable for all at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/author/4WJ8HWZG37Y3QA6CNJM9?target=10.1002/tea.21827
We advance the understanding of how student emotions relate to their learning of socioscientific issues (SSI). Studies have tended to examine how students' positive and negative emotions about an issue contribute to their learning. However, this approach overlooks the fact that students may have different emotions about different objects (i.e., stakeholders, phenomena, the status quo, and the future) within an issue. In this study, we examined students' patterns of emotion objects with respect to the extent of their conceptual change from a reductionist view to a systems view of obesity. Using a multiple case study design, we tracked the emotion objects of four purposefully selected university students, who demonstrated either significant change or minimal change in their view of obesity. Data were collected over a 12‐week general education course on obesity and 6 months after the course, and included weekly reflective journals and delayed postcourse interviews. We found that students with different extents of conceptual change had distinguishable sets of emotion objects. For example, the emotion objects of students with significant conceptual change included obese people and the food industry. Furthermore, their emotions were more often moral in nature. These findings suggest that moral emotions are an integral part of SSI learning. We make two contributions to the literature. First, we identify the need to attend to and specify emotion objects as key variables in future research on emotions. In practice, teachers should consider strategies that help students attend to the emotion objects that matter for SSI learning. Second, we identify stakeholders as key emotion objects in SSI learning. The expression of moral emotions about stakeholders coincided with conceptual change to a systems view. This implies that future research and the practice of SSI learning should pay attention to students' moral emotions about stakeholders.
Once dominated by a focus on collecting and preserving, and later communicating science through hands-on experiences, science museums are slowly reshaping their identities and purposes to explicitly include and promote active citizenship, social responsibility, engagement with complex science and technology issues, and agency. Informed by progressive views of scientific literacy and dialogic and participatory models of communication, science museums are beginning to re-imagine their spaces and practices to embrace broader goals. This theoretical paper explores and discusses the changing roles and identities of these institutions through the emergence of what we identify as fourth-generation science museums and their six defining drivers (Pedretti & Navas Iannini, 2020). We argue science museums can become places that (1) embrace change and transformation; (2) promote productive struggle; (3) develop allyship; (4) foster empathy; (5) support epistemic democracy; and (6) act as a hybrid third space.
Science education in recent years has increasingly emphasized the connections between knowledge and matters of social importance. Socioscientific issues (SSIs)—complex, often controversial issues linked to the development of science and technology—are widely recognized as a valuable arena for the school curriculum to foster students’ scientific literacy. This paper reviews the research literature on how science teachers teach socioscientific issues with 25 empirical studies published between 2004 and 2019. The results show that teachers generally hold a partially informed understanding of SSI-based teaching. Multifarious challenges facing teachers in teaching SSIs are mainly at the teacher, student, and policy levels. However, our findings suggest that teachers lack explicit strategies to cope with these challenges and that SSI-based teaching should not rely on individual teachers alone. We argue for more support for teachers to improve the quality of their implementation of SSIs. This review has implications for education policymakers, teacher educators, school leaders, and teachers to respond to the challenges facing teachers in teaching SSIs collaboratively. Potential directions for further research are also discussed.
Educators have been increasingly concerned with what can be done about “post-truth” problems—that is, threats to people's abilities to know what is true—such as the spread of misinformation and denial of well-established scientific claims. The articles and commentaries in this special issue present diverse perspectives on how “post-truth” problems related to scientific and socio-scientific issues might be educationally addressed. The goal of this introductory article is to review and analyze the educational responses to the “post-truth” condition that are reflected in this special issue and in the literature at large. We argue that these responses have employed four lenses that focus on different underlying factors related to people's ways of knowing: not knowing how to know, fallible ways of knowing, not caring about truth (enough), and disagreeing about how to know. Each of these lenses offers different explanations of how education might aggravate or mitigate “post-truth” troubles.
Within the broad range of literature on the funds of knowledge approach, several positive impacts have been documented. In particular, participating teachers have reported meaningful changes in their relationships with students’ families as a consequence of the home visits. However, few studies have assessed the limitations of the approach, or areas for improvement. Hence, the aim of the study described here was to identify what teachers felt were the strengths and the weaknesses of the approach and to record their proposals for improvements. The teachers involved had participated in all phases of the program: from the initial training to the creation and implementation of educational activities based on the funds of knowledge identified from home visits. The positive aspects identified include improved family–school relationships; a better understanding of student behavior and attitudes, and the support of their colleagues and the University staff in the context of the study group created.
When engaging with socio-scientific issues, learners act at the intersection of scientific, school and other societal communities, drawing on knowledge, practices and identities from both in and out of the classroom to address problems as national or global citizens. We present three case studies of high school students whose classroom participation in a unit on the politically-polarizing topic of climate change was informed by their political identities and how they situated themselves in climate change’s sociocultural, historical and geologic context. We describe how these students, including two who initially rejected human-influenced climate change but revised their understandings, negotiated dissonant identities in the classroom through repeated engagement with conflicting political and scientific values, knowledge and beliefs. These case studies problematize building bridges between formal and informal learning experiences and suggest that it may be necessary to leverage disconnections in addition to building connections across settings to promote productive identity work. The results further suggest that supporting climate change learning includes attending to identity construction across eco-social time scales, including geologic time.
In the European Union, educational policy-making bodies are encouraging projects of inquiry-based learning to stimulate interest of young people in science and broaden the science and technological skills base. In this chapter, I discuss how a project that incorporates socio-political
questions as the object of its inquiry can critically address issues of consumerism and unequal distribution that affect contemporary neoliberal economies. Components of this model of inquiry draw on substantive scientific knowledge incorporating Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI), Critical Citizenship Education, Socio-Scientific Issues, as well as Inquiry; hence, the acronym, SSIBL (Socio-Scientific Inquiry Based Learning). Social values at the heart of this project are science inquiry as for and with people, recognising that we live in a diverse world where technological change should be underpinned by social justice and political responsibility. We describe how authentic activities, those that stem from students’ concerns, can be derived from these values to lead to non-trivial action which takes into account social, political and cultural constraints and uncertainties. Inquiries reflect issues that have personal, social and global relevance. A sensitive assessment strategy is developed, which incorporates knowledge about the issue, skills of organising, values that reflect the underlying principles of compassionate justice and dispositions of inclusivity and criticality.
This article aims to describe and illustrate how the curriculum can be contextualised through different educational experiences based on the funds of knowledge approach. Educational contextualisation is understood to be the linking of curricular content (literacy, science, mathematics, social sciences) with students’ lives, including prior learning experiences from their homes and communities. The literature review began by surveying 59 articles retrieved from the ERIC database after entering the search terms “funds of knowledge” and “teaching methods”. Out of these, 22 peer reviewed papers were selected based on the following criteria: the paper should illustrate how artefacts produced by students (photographs, texts, artistic productions, digital stories) can be put to pedagogical use by turning them into resources to mobilise knowledge and experiences inside and outside school. The results are discussed in light of the CREDE Standards for Effective Pedagogy, as well as the notion of funds of identity, which has been proposed recently within the context of the funds of knowledge approach.
This article discusses an attempt at a Bourdieusian-inspired form of praxis, developed and implemented in collaboration with nine London teachers, aimed at developing a socially just approach to engaging students with science. Data are discussed from nine months of classroom observations of nine secondary science classes from six inner London schools (approximately 200 students, aged 11–15), interviews and workshop data from the nine teachers and 13 discussion groups conducted with 59 students. The approach resulted in noticeable changes in practice, which were perceived by teachers and students to improve student engagement, cultivate a range of science-related dispositions and promote wider student participation and ‘voice’ in classes. Issues, limitations and possibilities for sociology of education are discussed.
Background
Many scholars have espoused the use of culturally responsive instruction (CRT) for closing achievement gaps, yet there is a paucity of research supporting its effectiveness. In this article, we share results of a mixed methods study that examined the use of the Culturally Responsive Instruction Observation Protocol (CRIOP) as a framework for teacher professional development. The CRIOP is a comprehensive model and evaluation tool that operationalizes culturally responsive instruction around seven elements: Classroom Relationships, Family Collaboration; Assessment; Curriculum/Planned Experiences; Instruction/Pedagogy; Discourse/Instructional Conversation; and Sociopolitical Consciousness/Diverse Perspectives.
Focus of Study
This study was designed to answer the following questions: (1) Do teachers increase their use of culturally responsive practices as they participate in CRIOP professional development? (2) What is the relationship between implementation of culturally responsive instruction and student achievement in reading and mathematics ?, and (3) What are teachers’ perceptions of their successes and challenges in implementing culturally responsive instruction?
Participants
Twenty-seven elementary teachers participated in this study. Of the 27 participants, all were female, 26 were White, and all were native speakers of English. Student achievement data were collected from students enrolled in classrooms of participating teachers at the two schools in the study that administered the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) test. Of the 456 students who were participants, 397 (87.3%) received free or reduced lunch, and 128 (28 % of total sample) were classified as English Language Learners (ELLs).
Intervention
Three training sessions were held before school began and during the fall semester. Additionally, throughout the school year teachers received individual classroom coaching, on-site professional development, and instructional planning support. Participating teachers received an average of 50.4 hours of classroom-based coaching and mentoring during the intervention, which included observations, meetings with individual teachers and teacher teams, curriculum planning sessions, and collaborative creation of individualized action plans. The CRIOP was used as a professional development framework. The intended outcome of on-site support was to increase the incorporation of culturally responsive instruction in teachers’ daily practices, resulting in more culturally responsive classroom relationships, assessment and instructional practices, and use of discourse.
Research Design
This study utilized a concurrent triangulation mixed methods design. Data sources included classroom observations, student achievement results, and postobservation teacher interviews. The CRIOP instrument was used for classroom observations to determine the extent of implementation of culturally responsive practices. Following each classroom observation, field researchers conducted an audio-recorded semistructured interview using the CRIOP Post-Observation Teacher Interview Protocol and The CRIOP Family Collaboration Teacher Interview Protocol. These protocols were designed to elicit additional information that might not have been readily apparent from data gleaned during the observation. In addition, participants were interviewed to determine their perceptions of culturally responsive instruction. Three interview questions and responses were transcribed and coded for analysis: How do you define culturally responsive instruction ? What are your biggest successes with using Culturally Responsive Instruction with your students ? What are your biggest challenges with using Culturally Responsive Instruction with your students ? Integration of quantitative and qualitative data occurred during data collection and interpretation.
Findings
Results of classroom observations showed that teachers had significantly higher levels of CRI implementation in the spring compared to fall. Data on student achievement indicated that students of high implementers of the CRIOP had significantly higher achievement scores in reading and mathematics than students of low implementers. The results of this study also suggest that teachers face several challenges in implementing CRI, including constraints imposed by administrators, high-stakes accountability, language barriers in communicating with families, and the sheer complexity of culturally responsive instruction.
Conclusions/Recommendations
Although numerous scholars have espoused the value of culturally responsive instruction (CRI), there is limited research on its effectiveness. The results of this investigation suggest that the CRIOP shows promise both as a framework for teacher professional development and as an observation instrument in investigations of culturally responsive instruction. Findings also indicate that one of the biggest challenges in implementing CRI is its multidimensionality in that it includes several components (e.g., student relationships, family collaboration, assessment practices, instructional practices, discourse practices, and sociopolitical consciousness), which together comprise the CRIOP model. Future research including an experimental design is needed to determine the effectiveness of the CRIOP as a measure of culturally responsive instruction and as a framework for intervention.
The author provides an overview of a “funds of knowledge” approach and presents three different adaptations of the approach with a common theme of expanding teachers' and students' resources for learning.
Intergenerational panel data are used to test a model of youth news socialization. We hypothesize that observing parent news reading and participating in family news discussions have concurrent effects on youth news use, ultimately resulting in a propensity for news consumption that persists into adulthood. Results from a recursive path model demonstrate parent communication variables have direct and indirect effects on frequency of youth news use. Frequency of youth news use, in turn, predicts news use among the same respondents 7 years later. We also find a latent, lagged effect of parent news reading on their kids’ long-term news use.
Latent class analysis (LCA) and latent profile analysis (LPA) are powerful techniques that enable researchers to glean insights into “hidden” psychological experiences to create typologies and profiles to provide better-informed community-based policies and practice. These analytic methods have been used in a variety of domains, such as: psychosis symptomatology in the general population (Kibowski & Williams, 2012; Murphy, Shevlin, & Adamson, 2007; Shevlin, Murphy, Dorahy, & Adamson, 2007); substance abuse (Cleveland, Collins, Lanza, Greenberg, & Feinberg, 2010; James, McField, & Montgomery, 2013), peer victimization (Nylund, Bellmore, Nishina, & Graham, 2007), and anti-social/self-defeating behavior (Rosato & Baer, 2010). LCA and LPA are versatile methods of dealing with data of interest to community-based researchers in a deep and psychologically grounded way. This chapter will address the nuances of how and when to use LCA and LPA. Case studies of LCA and LPA will also be presented to illustrate the applicability of these techniques.
Science education scholars and practitioners have called for the contextualization of science content through the exploration of socially relevant issues, also known as socio-scientific issues (SSI), throughout the field’s history. In this chapter we explore the effectiveness of SSI as contexts for science education. Specifically, we review studies that empirically test the effects of SSI-based curricula on the following learning outcomes: science content knowledge, nature of science, interest and motivation, and argumentation. The results provide evidence of positive effects of SSI-based curricula on student learning and practices related to all of the aforementioned areas. We conclude that the research base supports integration of SSI in school science education.