The science-society relations of social sciences and humanities have been increasingly discussed under the concept of productive interactions, which refers to the mutual learning processes between researchers and stakeholders for the benefit of societal development. While most studies have analysed the societal impact from the research performers'…

An interdisciplinary and pluralistic approach to teaching and learning has been proposed as one solution to the lack of a consensus definition of sustainable development (SD). For teachers, such an approach requires an awareness of the interconnections among different dimensions of SD and their underlying value-based assumptions. In this article,…

School-industry collaboration can be an effective way to implement STSE issues to teaching. However, teachers' negative beliefs, lack of knowledge, resources, support and opportunities to collaborate with companies can impede the efficient implementation. In this case-study, 42 Finnish and Slovenian pre-service teachers' STSE beliefs were first…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to assess the socioscientific issue (SSI) method as a way of improving seventh graders' nutrition know-how on dietary supplements (DS), and to describe how students experience learning nutritional issues through the SSI method. Design/methodology/approach: Participants were seventh graders from three different…

Research has demonstrated that socio-scientific issues based inquiry learning has significant advantages for learning outcomes and students' motivation. Further, a successful understanding of landscapes in environmental and geographical education can be achieved by combining informal learning environments with school education. Therefore this case…

This research compared how the scientific literacy-related goals of the current Chinese and Finnish national science curricula at primary school level are actualised using a revised Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) scientific literacy framework in the content analysis of the curricula. The content of the curricula focuses…

Science education strives to increase interest in science and facilitate active citizenship. Thus, the aspects of personal and societal relevance are increasingly emphasised in science curricula. Still, little is known about how teachers choose content for their teaching, although their choices translate curricula to teaching practice. We explored…

Pupils' conceptual change processes that have led to long-term changes in learning processes can be very challenging and interwoven with several issues. Meanwhile, school learning is often determined as fragmented, without providing connections to pupils' different life and societal contexts. In this study, Science, Technology, and Society (STS)…

Pedagogical transformations in universities are typically explored as "top down" attempts or in the context of training programs targeted towards educating more pedagogically aware individuals. In this study, promoting pedagogical development is explored on a community level as change agency: acting as a broker between the…

Recent efforts in the science education community have highlighted the need to integrate research and theory from science communication research into more general science education scholarship. These synthesized research perspectives are relatively novel but serve an important need to better understand the impacts that the advent of rapidly…

The aim of this study was to assess how the different aspects of nature of science (NOS) were represented in Finnish and Swedish upper secondary school chemistry textbooks. The dimensions of NOS were analyzed from five popular chemistry textbook series. The study provides a quantitative method for analysis of representations of NOS in chemistry…

This paper focuses on pupils' perceptions of water issues. The instructional situations take place in a Finnish primary school and aim at introducing the Science-Technology-Society (STS) study approach. The primary aim of this study is, in the context of STS instruction, to describe issues that pupils associate with water. This paper involves…

With the development of science and technology, a basically optimistic ideology of progress has emerged. This deterministic attitude has been challenged in recent decades as a result of harmful side-effects generated by the way technology and science have been approached and used. The study presented here is a part of a larger international and…

This study reports the preferences students expressed in regard to problem-solving modes for resolving environmental problems. There were many differences between students at different grades and between girls and boys. Implications for teaching are suggested. (YP)

Compares 117 Finnish and 351 southern U.S. college students for the following: (1) paranormal beliefs; (2) personality adjustment constructs (anomie, death concerns, alienation, and death threat); and (3) relationships between the beliefs and constructs. The secularization process, further advanced in Finland than the United States, moderates…