Socio-scientific issues (SSI) are open-ended, multifaceted social issues with conceptual links to science. They are challenging to negotiate and resolve, and they create ideal contexts for bridging school science and the lived experience of students. This book presents the latest findings from the innovative practice and systematic investigation of science education in the context of socio-scientific issues. Socio-scientific Issues in the Classroom: Teaching, Learning and Research focuses on how SSI can be productively incorporated into science classrooms and what SSI-based education can accomplish regarding student learning, practices and interest. It covers numerous topics that address key themes for contemporary science education including scientific literacy, goals for science teaching and learning, situated learning as a theoretical perspective for science education, and science for citizenship. It presents a wide range of classroom-based research projects that offer new insights for SSI-based education. Authored by leading researchers from eight countries across four continents, this book is an important compendium of syntheses and insights for veteran researchers, teachers and curriculum designers eager to advance the SSI agenda.

Socioscientific issues require individuals to use moral and ethical considerations to help in their evaluation of evidence and decision making, entailing controversial scientific phenomena. Such issues include genetic engineering and biotechnology. Socioscientific issues pedagogy has the potential to enhance students’ overall conceptual understanding of scientific phenomena that affect the daily lives of people across the globe. Socioscientific Issues-Based Instruction for Scientific Literacy Development is a critical scholarly publication that examines the development of a research-based integrated socioscientific issues pedagogy for use in the K-12 system, teacher education preparation, and informal education centers. The publication focuses on science education researchers and pre-service and in-service teachers’ abilities to design and implement meaningful learning opportunities for students to use rationalistic, intuitive, and emotive perspectives as they engage in information reasoning on scientific topics, such as climate change and CRISPR, that are of utmost importance. Teachers in the K-12 system and informal education settings will be able to use this text to enhance scientific literacy among their students. Instructors in teacher preparation programs will be able to use this research-based text to improve pre-service and in-service teachers’ abilities to use socioscientific issues pedagogy to enhance scientific literacy among K-12 students. Additionally, audiences including researchers, administrators, academicians, policymakers, and students will find this book beneficial for their studies.

"Functional scientific literacy requires an understanding of the nature of science and the skills necessary to think both scientifically and ethically about everyday issues.” —from the introduction to It’s Debatable! This book encourages scientific literacy by showing you how to teach the understanding and thinking skills your students need to explore real-world questions like these: • Should schools charge a "tax” to discourage kids from eating unhealthy foods? • Should local governments lower speed limits to reduce traffic fatalities? • Should pharmaceutical companies be allowed to advertise prescription drugs directly to consumers? At the core of the exploration is the Socioscientific Issues Framework. The framework gives students practice in the research, analysis, and argumentation necessary to grapple with difficult questions and build scientific literacy. After introducing the concept of the framework and explaining how it aligns with the Next Generation Science Standards, the book shows you how to implement it through seven units targeted to the elementary, middle, and high school levels. You even find out how to develop your own socioscientific issues curriculum. Both practical and content-rich, It’s Debatable! doesn’t shy away from controversy. Instead, the authors encourage you and your students to confront just how messy the questions raised by science (and pseudoscience) can be. After all, as the authors note, “The only way for our students to be prepared for participation in societal discourse is to have practice in their school years, and what better place than the science classroom?”

This book explores innovative approaches to teacher professional learning, examples of teaching enacted in classrooms, and factors affecting the promotion of quality teaching in socio-scientific issues and sustainability contexts. Since educational settings and cultures influence teaching, the different approaches and perspectives in various cross-national contexts enable us to appreciate the diversity of different countries’ practices and provide insight into seminal approaches to socio-scientific issues-based teaching internationally. The book consists of three parts: innovative professional development programs, innovative teaching approaches, and issues relating to student engagement with socio-scientific issues and sustainability education. The book targets those who can be expected to develop curriculum, enact teaching practices, and facilitate teachers’ professional development in socio-scientific issues and sustainability education.

"This is overwhelmingly a valuable book - particularly in the context of science education in the UK. It is a book that deserves to be read more widely by science teachers, particularly those who seek not simply to extend their repertoire of teaching techniques, but who wish to place these techniques upon a sound academic footing." Educational Review "I have greatly enjoyed reading through Science Education for Citizenship. It is extremely informative and contains much of value. We will definitely be putting it on our MA in Science Education reading list." Dr Michael Reiss, Institute of Education, University of London This innovative book explores the effective teaching and learning of issues relating to the impact of science in society. Research case studies are used to examine the advantages and problems as science teachers try new learning approaches, including ethical analysis, use of media-reports, peer-group decision-making discussions and community projects. This book: offers practical guidance in devising learning goals and suitable learning and assessment strategies helps teachers to provide students with the skills and understanding needed to address these multi-faceted issues explores the nature and place of socio-scientific issues in the curriculum and the support necessary for effective teaching Science Education for Citizenship supports science teachers, citizenship teachers and other educators as they help students to develop the skills and understanding to deal with complex everyday issues.

According to many documents, there is a strong need to renew science education. One way could be to work with SSI (socio-scientific issues). This paper reports on both students' and teachers' experiences and learning when working with socio-scientific issues in science education in secondary school (aged from 13 to 16). The approach is multidimensional, as factors that influence cognition as well as motivation and the forming of attitudes are complex. Results suggest that SSI work forms are more important than personal factors for explaining outcomes. Relevant issues, autonomy and functioning group work seem to be important aspects of successful SSI work together with structure provided by the teacher, and information that challenges previous knowledge. In general, SSI seems to be most efficient for students, who believe that they learn from presenting and discussing their knowledge, focus on "the large picture", acknowledge own responsibility for learning, find school science personally relevant and are self-efficacious. It seems that the outcomes from SSI work are much in the hands of the teacher. This paper is a short summary of the first year and quantitative part of the project. Further results from the project will later be found in our homepage (http://www.sisc.se).

"In this book, the author posits that the exploration of urban students' engagement with school science using sociocultural perspectives may uncover factors that influence students learning and success in the science classrooms. The author further proposes that using curricula framed around sociocultural perspectives may develop students' understandings about the role science and technology plays in their lives, as well as well as in the larger society, thus making science more accessible and relevant for these children in urban settings." "There has been no study to date that examines the impact of curricular approaches guided by a sociocultural framework (contextualized curriculum in this study) on the comprehension level and attitudes of students. The study fills that gap and holds implications for the inclusion of alternative curricular framework in urban middle school science classrooms." "The author has used a mixed-methods study and draws upon both quantitative and qualitative data sources. The study design allows the reader to appreciate the perspectives of participating students and teachers on the use of contextualized curricular framework versus curricular framework guided by IVF practices in urban middle school science classrooms"--BOOK JACKET.

Problem statement: In the context of science education reform in Thailand, we need to prepare science teachers who can face science and social issues controversial; teachers can response the question socioscientific issues and let their students to meet the goal of science education. This study investigated the conception leading preservice science teachers approaching socioscientific issues-based teaching. The activities in classroom emphasized on peer discussion about science and social reflection, nature of science, making decision based on moral and ethics was employed. Approach: The purpose of this study was to develop preservice science teachers which promote the introduction of socioscientific issues in the classroom. One hundred and one preservice science teachers were asked about conception of socioscientific issues-based teaching. Based on reality of pedagogical aspect, they need to know nature of science and conception about how to incorporate science and social issues into classroom. Result: Most of them showed their beliefs for socioscientific issues-based teaching in terms of ways to promote nature of science. The ideas for teaching need awareness of science and society, scientific values, personal experiences, moral and ethics in science and social judgment. Also, this study showed that preservice science teacher express their satisfaction on the activities at high level. Conclusion/recommendations: The results recommend the socioscientific issues-based teaching for curriculum development and program for gaining preservice teachers to aware their role in science classroom.

In advocating an action-oriented and issues-based curriculum, this book takes the position that a major, but shamefully neglected, goal of science and technology education is to equip students with the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values to confront the complex and often ill-defined socioscientific issues they encounter in daily life as citizens in an increasingly technology-dominated world carefully, critically, confidently and responsibly. In outlining proposals for addressing socioscientific issues through a curriculum organized in terms of four increasingly sophisticated levels of consideration, the author adopts a highly critical and politicized stance towards the norms and values that underpin both scientific and technological development and contemporary scientific, engineering and medical practice, criticizes mainstream STS and STSE education for adopting a superficial, politically naïve and, hence, educationally ineffective approach to consideration of socioscientific issues, takes the view that environmental problems are social problems occasioned by the values that underpin the ways in which we choose to live, and urges teachers to encourage students to reach their own views through debate and argument about where they stand on major socioscientific issues, including the moral-ethical issues they often raise. More controversially, the author argues that if students are to become responsible and politically active citizens, the curriculum needs to provide opportunities for them to experience and learn from sociopolitical action. The relative merits of direct and indirect action are addressed, notions of learning about action, learning through action and learning from action are developed, and a case is made for compiling a user-friendly database reflecting on both successful and less successful action-oriented curriculum initiatives. Finally, the book considers some of the important teacher education issues raised by this radically new approach to teaching and learning science and technology. The book is intended primarily for teachers and student teachers of science, technology and environmental education, graduate students and researchers in education, teacher educators, curriculum developers and those responsible for educational policy. The author is Emeritus Professor of Science Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (University of Toronto), Adjunct Professor of Science Education at the University of Auckland and Visiting Professor of Science Education at the University of Hong Kong. His research interests include considerations in the history, philosophy and sociology of science and their implications for science and technology education, STSE education and the politicization of both students and teachers, science curriculum history, multicultural and antiracist education, and teacher education via action research.