Socio-scientific Issues in the Classroom: Teaching, Learning and Research

Description

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 researchers, teachers and curriculum designers eager to advance the SSI agenda. Front Matter....Pages i-xxiv Situating Socio-scientific Issues in Classrooms as a Means of Achieving Goals of Science Education....Pages 1-9 Enhancing the Authenticity of a Web-Based Module for Teaching Simple Inheritance....Pages 11-38 Metalogue: Using Issues and Participatory Experiences to Enhance Student Learning and Interest....Pages 39-43 Learning Science Content and Socio-scientific Reasoning Through Classroom Explorations of Global Climate Change....Pages 45-77 Metalogue: Issues in the Conceptualization of Research Constructs and Design for SSI Related Work....Pages 79-87 Effects of an Interdisciplinary Program on Students’ Reasoning with Socioscientific Issues and Perceptions of Their Learning Experiences....Pages 89-126 Metalogue: SSI in Undergraduate Science Education....Pages 127-131 Discussing a Socioscientific Issue in a Primary School Classroom: The Case of Using a Technology-Supported Environment in Formal and Nonformal Settings....Pages 133-159 Metalogue: Assessment, Audience, and Authenticity for Teaching SSI and Argumentation....Pages 161-166 Decision Making and Use of Evidence in a Socio-scientific Problem on Air Quality....Pages 167-192 Metalogue: Engaging Students in Scientific and Socio-scientific Argumentation....Pages 193-199 Different Music to the Same Score: Teaching About Genes, Environment, and Human Performances....Pages 201-238 Metalogue: Design and Enactment of SSI Curriculum: Critical Theory, Difficult Content, and Didactic Transposition....Pages 239-243 Learning Nature of Science Through Socioscientific Issues....Pages 245-269 Metalogue: Preconditions and Resources for Productive Socio-scientific Issues Teaching and Learning....Pages 271-276 Enacting a Socioscientific Issues Classroom: Transformative Transformations....Pages 277-305 Metalogue: Balancing Tensions Associated with Extensive Enactment of SSI-Based Teaching....Pages 307-312 A Case Study of the Impact of Introducing Socio-scientific Issues into a Reproduction Unit in a Catholic Girls’ School....Pages 313-345 Metalogue: Critical Issues in Teaching Socio-scientific Issues....Pages 347-353 Socio-scientific Issues-Based Education: What We Know About Science Education in the Context of SSI....Pages 355-369 Back Matter....Pages 371-375