The purpose of this study is to determine which features of the nature of science pre-service primary school teachers refer to while making a decision on a socioscientific issue at the end of the explicit reflective nature of science education. For this purpose, an exploratory qualitative research design was used in the study. The research group…

The world has been fighting with the novel COVID-19 pandemic, which has scientific, societal, and ethical components, and thus it can be classified as one of the most challenging socio-scientific issues (SSI) of our era. The pandemic required individuals to make decisions on a variety of issues, and these decision-making processes are highly…

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…

In an increasingly complex media environment, science educators must help prepare students to make decisions on science-related issues that are in the best interest of themselves and their communities. Researchers have suggested the use of socioscientific issues (SSI) to teach students how to think scientifically and to make good decisions…

The demand for the Dongfeng Highway connecting Dongshi and Fengyuan, Taiwan, originates from a 7.3 ML earthquake disaster affecting residents' medical treatment and material transportation. The Dongfeng Highway route selection was identified as the socioscientific issues (SSI) and the Decision Factors Table and SageModeler (two representational…

Controversial scientific issues, or socioscientific issues (SSIs), demand the consideration of more than scientific content when constructing decisions. The Justification for Knowing framework (JFK) was developed to categorize the information sources drawn upon when making SSI decisions within the academic domain of natural sciences. These…

Learners are expected to discuss and debate, using scientific evidence, the Socio-Scientific Issues (SSI) that often overlap with personal experiences and ethical dilemmas. This study investigated the reasoning of 24 Grade 8 Lebanese students when arguing about a scientific scenario as opposed to an SSI. It also examined how students make…

The current study identified recent trends in socioscientific issues (SSIs) in the field of education. Through descriptive analysis and co-word analysis, selected articles published in journals listed in the Social Science Citation Index and Scopus from 2000 to 2021 were screened. A total of 334 papers were retrieved as research target samples…

Wi-Fi radiation is a type of radio frequency electromagnetic radiation (RF-EMR) that refers to the transfer of energy by radio waves. Nowadays, exposure to RF radiation is widespread including wireless internet connection (Wi-Fi) routers and cell phones. The proliferation of devices emitting RF radiation has entailed some public and…

This design case details the design process of a multiple-choice assessment of socio-scientific systems thinking. This assessment is situated within a larger project that aims to understand the ways students use multiple scientific models to understand complex socio-scientific issues. In addition to the research component, this project entails…

During the course of international curriculum reform, decision making about socioscientific issues (SSI)--open-ended controversial issues with connections to science, technology, and society--has been labeled a critical tool for achieving scientific literacy. Therefore, enhancing students' socioscientific decision making as part of science…

The paper reports a qualitative study to reveal how preservice science teachers' decision making (DM) processes on socioscientific issue (SSI) in a referendum case compare between unsophisticated (Group U) and sophisticated (Group S) views in terms of nature of science (NOS) understandings. Firstly, pre-study was conducted with focus group…

This paper presents a cooperative learning activity on a nuclear power plant to develop students' reasoning skills on socioscientific issues. To this end, the steps in the implementation of the activity have been given in detail. The activity was implemented in an undergraduate course with senior preservice science teachers, whose reflections were…

Socioscientific issues (SSIs), or controversial scientific issues with social implications, influence members of society regardless of demographic. SSIs are contentious and ill-structured, meaning they do not have a definitive answer. To properly equip students with the tools needed to handle SSIs, undergraduate science curricula emphasize…

The spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is undoubtedly one of the most extraordinary challenges in recent history. Amidst this global crisis, various controversies have been emerging about how to manage the virus, ranging from whether face masks should be required as a preventive measure to whether hydroxychloroquine is an…