Over two years, a graduate diploma program in science communication was designed and delivered by a university in the Republic of South Africa with assistance from a university in Australia. Building on the Australian program, the design incorporated cross-cultural and Indigenous Knowledge elements in keeping with the ethos of the South African…

The purpose of this study was to analyse Italian high school and university students' attitudes towards physics using the Semiotic Cultural Psychological Theory (SCPT). In the SCPT framework, attitudes represent how individuals interpret their experience through the mediation of "generalized meaning" with which they are identified. A…

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 field of advertising has a structure that shapes consumer preferences and behaviors. The field of advertising undertakes the tasks of reflecting cultural values and norms, reinforcing or changing gender roles, and supporting social responsibility and campaigns. In addition, advertising, whose main purpose is sales, has a structure that shapes…

The authors describe an instructional model of interdisciplinarity that aims to simultaneously develop undergraduate students' disciplinary knowledge and foster integrative skills. Two faculty members taught separate undergraduate courses in history and microbiology during which students came together at multiple points throughout the semester.…

Growing demands and expectations on the side of policy makers and the public have changed the conditions for academics' engagement in public discussions. At the same time, risks related to this engagement for the professional and even private lives of academics have become apparent. Conducting a survey experiment among 4091 tenured professors in…

Developments in science and technology enrich life in the 21st century. To cope with life in society, reflective judgment and decision-making abilities on both the individual and societal levels are needed. Schools must prepare the younger generations to become responsible citizens who are able to make reflective judgments. This study elaborates…

Traditional biology curricula depict science as an objective field, overlooking the important influence that human values and biases have on what is studied and who can be a scientist. We can work to address this shortcoming by incorporating "ideological awareness" into the curriculum, which is an understanding of biases, stereotypes,…

This research aims to investigate the effect of socio-scientific issues (SSI) based instruction on preservice science teachers' soft skills and environmental awareness. By applying cluster random sampling, 83 preservice science teachers (PSTs) were selected from the Department of Science Education at a university in Indonesia. The participants…

Purpose: This study aims to analyze undergraduate science majors' perceptions of climate change. Design/methodology/approach: Three science major student cohorts at Loyola Marymount University -- first-year exposure (first-years taking a course related to climate science), first-year control (first-years taking a course unrelated to climate…

Molecular biology is an important course for medical postgraduates to understand the practice of modern molecular medicine. At present, molecular biology has been widely used in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of clinical medicine. The COVID-19 pandemic forced all universities suspending academic activities and online teaching all over…

This research aimed to assess the readiness of Indonesian pre-service science teachers by examining their perceptions of impending challenges, desired competencies, and anticipated instructional methodologies in preparing for the challenges of Society 5.0. Using a quantitative survey research methodology, 884 pre-service science teachers from 16…

The nature of science (NOS) has been recognised as an essential component for engagement with socioscientific issues (SSI). However, the findings on the link between the two have been inconclusive. This calls for a shift from students merely knowing about NOS, to using their understanding of it as a tool for decision-making and participation in…

Scientific/chemical literacy is currently the goal of science education in many countries. Students' chemical literacy can be developed through an innovative learning strategy that explicitly direct student learning to aspects of chemical literacy. This research aimed to examine the effectiveness of SOIE (Strengthening, Orientation, Investigation,…

To effectively address socioscientific issues (SSI), science teachers need to obtain a certain level of pedagogical content knowledge for SSI teaching (SSI-PCK). In this study, therefore, pre-service science teachers (PSTs) were provided an SSI teacher education program (SSI-TEP) based on the SSI-PCK framework and their development and challenges…