Socio-scientific issues should be considered in the course of students' formal education in science as one of the ways in which science education ought to be connected to the goals of sustainable development. Approaches to education in science still perpetuate a way of thinking that is incommensurable with preparing learners to develop the understandings and skills requisite for active participation in an uncertain and complex world. In addition, uptake of science is declining worldwide, poverty is deepening, and environmental degradation is worsening. We argue herein that finding ways to link science education to issues of sustainable development could provide the basis for making science more relevant to learners, as well as better prepare learners for active participation in society. We raise the question: How can science education be more relevant, thereby enabling learners to deal with complex everyday issues and participate in decision-making oriented toward the goals of sustainable development? Drawing on experiences of interdisciplinary dialogue, we illustrate how reformulating the agenda in science education, such that it is oriented toward sustainable development, offers the basis for relevant teaching and learning vis-à-vis the engagement of learners in active learning processes.

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The study aimed to determine the comparative effectiveness of context-based and traditional teaching approaches in enhancing student achievement in genetics, problem-solving, science inquiry and decision-making skills, and attitude towards the study of life sciences. A mixed method but essentially quantitative research approach involving a quasi-experimental, non-equivalent pre-test post-test control group design was used for the investigation. A total of 190 students from six grade 11 intact science classes, and their six teachers drawn from the six high schools in Tshwane South educational district in Gauteng, South Africa comprised the study sample. The participating teachers taught a genetics course made up of several themes to students in the control and experimental groups over a 7-week period. Five instruments were used to assess student performance in genetics content knowledge, science inquiry skills, problem-solving and decision-making abilities and attitude towards life sciences. Qualitative data derived from teachers' and students' interview protocols were used to supplement the quantitative data. The results suggest that context-based teaching was significantly better than traditional teaching approaches in enhancing student performance, apart from specific science inquiry skills. Performance differences were strongly associated with the type of contexts used in designing the genetics learning materials, and the context-based teaching model used for implementing the materials.

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This study explored the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and its development of four experienced biology teachers in the context of teaching school genetics. Pedagogical content knowledge was defined in terms of teacher content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and knowledge of students" preconceptions and learning difficulties. Data sources of teacher knowledge base included teacher constructed concept maps, pre-and post-lesson teacher interviews, videorecorded genetics lessons, post-lesson teacher questionnaire and document analysis of teacher"s reflective journals and students" work samples. The results showed that the teachers" individual PCK profiles consisted predominantly of declarative and procedural content knowledge in teaching basic genetics concepts. Conditional knowledge, which is a type of meta-knowledge for blending together declarative and procedural knowledge, was also demonstrated by some teachers. Further, the teachers used topic-specific instructional strategies such as context based teaching, illustrations, peer teaching, and analogies in diverse forms but failed to use physical models and individual or group student experimental activities to assist students" internalization of the concepts. The finding that all four teachers lacked knowledge of students" genetics-related preconceptions was equally significant. Formal university education, school context, journal reflection and professional development programmes were considered as contributing to the teachers" continuing PCK development. Implications of the findings for biology teacher education are briefly discussed.