We advance the understanding of how student emotions relate to their learning of socioscientific issues (SSI). Studies have tended to examine how students' positive and negative emotions about an issue contribute to their learning. However, this approach overlooks the fact that students may have different emotions about different objects (i.e.,…

Socioscientific issues (SSIs) can provide a context to address societal decision-making processes in school. In recent years, studies have demonstrated that one effective way to deal with these topics is through role play. However, role plays may induce an unreflected attitude change based on the roles the participants take on, which raises…

Large carnivore predators can be controversial animals, but sustainable coexistence with humans depends on peoples' tolerance and willingness to support their conservation. We conducted a short-term study on a sample of Slovak schoolchildren (aged 9-15) aimed at changing attitudes toward the grey wolf. The intervention consisted of videos and PPT…

It is widely accepted that one of the most important series that sheds light on the triangle of science-technology-society is the Fringe series. This study intends to make teacher candidates analyze the Fringe in the triangle of science-technology-society and to get their views on the future technologies mentioned in the series and the dilemmas…

In this study, the effect of philosophy for children on primary school 4th-grade students' attitudes toward socioscientific issues (SSIs) and asking questions will be examined. A quasi-experimental design will be used in the study. In the study, 48 (experimental group [EG]: 24, control group [CG]: 24) primary school 4th-grade students studying in…

Astronomy is seen as a "gateway" science, inspiring students to pursue Science-Technology-Engineering-Mathematics (STEM) related careers. However, there is little evidence that students' attitudes towards astronomy remain stable over time. By integrating Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), we identified…

The purpose of this study was to investigate how 22 preservice science teachers' (PSTs') beliefs about teaching socioscientific issues (SSI) changed after experiencing SSI instruction and reflection from both a learner's perspective and a teacher's perspective during a 12-week initial teacher education course. The study also explored the learning…

The aim of this study was to investigate how mobile outdoor learning supports the development of students' conceptual understanding about local socio-environmental problems and students' attitudes towards the learning activity. To explore these aspects, a study following a design-based research model was designed and conducted with 68 eighth-ninth…

The purpose of the current study is to reveal students' environmental attitudes, their informal reasoning, and how their informal reasoning on a socioscientific issue changes depending on their environmental attitudes. The study participants were 104 eighth-grade students. A form consisting of a scenario and open-ended questions was used as data…

The aim of this mixed-method study is twofold: The first aim concerns pre-service science teachers' (PSTs) perceptions about what makes an argument persuasive. At the first phase, an in-depth analysis of their views about persuasiveness of different quality level arguments in three socioscientific contexts which were global climate change, base…

Conventional school science has often portrayed obesity as a self-inflicted problem. It tends to ignore perspectives at the systems level, such as social, political, marketing and economic factors that shape an obesogenic environment that determines individual eating and lifestyle patterns. Therefore, socioscientific decisions (e.g. fat tax) are…

Studying quantum physics in upper secondary school is now a standard practice (Stadermann et al., 2019). But given the context of science education, with low recruitment numbers in higher education and poor attitudes towards science, it remains a question whether students find the learning of quantum physics relevant. In this study, we explore how…

In this study, two different learning approaches (the Toulmin model of argumentation and whole class discussion technique) to the training of primary school teachers in Turkey were tested over socio-scientific issues. On the one hand, we identified how prospective teachers experienced a change of mind on these issues before and after the training,…

Can science teaching contribute to developing skills for managing uncertainty towards the future and projecting imagination forwards? If so, how? In this paper, we outline an approach to 'teach the future' through science education. In the first part, we describe a framework that has been constructed to orient the design of teaching modules…

When engaging with socioscientific issues, learners act at the intersection of scientific, school, and other societal communities, drawing on knowledge, practices, and identities from both in and out of the classroom to address problems as national or global citizens. We present three case studies of high school students whose classroom…