In the 1920s, John Dewey and Walter Lippmann both wrote important books examining whether the public was capable of playing a constructive role in policy, particularly when specialized knowledge was involved. This essay uses the Lippmann-Dewey debate to identify new challenges for science education and to explore the relationship between science…

Determining what students think about science, technology, and society (STS) is of great importance. This also provides the basis for scientific literacy. As such, this study was conducted with a total of 102 senior students attending a university located in western Turkey. This study utilized the survey model as a research model and the…

In this article, I introduce a framework for guiding future citizens to think critically about nature of science (NOS) and "with" NOS as they engage in socioscientific decision making. The framework, referred to as the critical thinking--nature of science (CT-NOS) framework, explicates and targets both NOS as a learning objective and NOS…

This study considers how students change their coherent conceptual understanding of natural selection through a hands-on simulation. The results show that most students change their understanding. In addition, some students also underwent a transformative experience and used their new knowledge in a leisure time activity. These transformative…

The purpose of this study was to explore to what extent the in-service chemistry teachers improved their PCK after attending the training program at the Faculty of Education. The research questions were: (1) How do in-service teachers' personal perceptions about the teaching/learning process change after attending the training course at the…

The present paper is a case study based on a first year BA Hons Education Studies module that explores a number of important questions about the relationship between technology, knowledge and society and begins to think about how our ideas about each of these contribute to an understanding of what education means. Following a Foucauldian…

Why and under what conditions might students value their science learning? To find out, the authors observed approximately 400 science classes. They found that although several teachers were amazingly adept at regularly promoting the value of science, many others missed out on important opportunities to promote the value of science. The authors…

The idea that the public should have the capacity for understanding science in the news has been embraced by scientists, educators, and policymakers alike. An oft-cited goal of contemporary science education, in fact, is to enhance students' understanding of science in the news. But what exactly does it "mean" to understand science…

This paper reports on the challenge of evaluating students' scientific literacy in a writing-to-learn context, as illustrated by our experience with an online science-writing project. In this mixed methods study, year 9 students in a case study class (13-14 year olds, n?=?26) authored a series of two "hybridised" short stories that…

This article provides a critical and global overview of current research into public opinion about science and technology (S&T). Although several sets of high-quality data exist, there remains a lack of international coordination and irregular release of new data in forms that can be widely used. The article highlights a range of key…

As research probes deeper into all aspects of science, greater specialisation is required. This natural progression takes knowledge and understanding further away from the general public. Hence part of the responsibility of scientists is to communicate that knowledge at an appropriate level of understanding. As most people do not actively follow…

The present paper is a case study based on a first year BA Hons Education Studies module that explores a number of important questions about the relationship between technology, knowledge and society and begins to think about how our ideas about each of these contribute to an understanding of what education means. Following a Foucauldian…

Teachers may face considerable challenges when implementing socio-scientific issues (SSI) in their classroom practices, such as incorporating student-centred teaching practices and exploring knowledge and values in the context of socioscientific issues. This year-long study explores teachers' reflections on the process of developing their…

In this lesson, the teacher begins by reviewing some key energy topics with the students. Next, students are asked to focus closely on nuclear energy as a viable resource by closely reading, highlighting, and annotating an article regarding the future of nuclear energy. The culminating activity and evaluation of students understanding of energy…

In our everyday lives we are surrounded by advertising in its various forms. Thus in the school context it is not surprising that the issue of advertising is addressed by different subjects, with the main foci being advertising-specific language, images and illustrations, use of stereotypes, strategies of persuasion, etc. But advertising also…