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 educative goal of citizenship education through science education converges to the declared purpose of the SSI research movement. Socioscientific issues formulated in science education research covering topics as biotechnology, environmental issues, sustainable development, energy choices, have been introduced in French Middle Schools. But…

Socio-scientific issues in class have been proposed in an effort to democratise science in society. A micro-ethnographic approach has been used to explore how students elaborate arguments on a socio-scientific controversy in the context of small group discussions. Several processes of group argumentation have been identified. Students' arguments…

This study investigates the reasons for science teachers' tendencies to teach socio-scientific issues in their classrooms. Teaching social problems is highly recommended in science education to increase student understanding of economical, environmental, political, and ethical issues in science. Results indicate that teachers show a positive…

The Université des Lycéens (University of High-School Students) was set up in France in order to make scientific knowledge more relevant to students and to combat a growing lack of interest in science among students. The scheme involves a series of lectures to students by scientists, each followed by a debate. The organisers hope that putting…