A Survey of Indonesian Science Teachers’ Experience and Perceptions toward Socio-Scientific Issues-Based Science Education

Abstract

This survey explored Indonesian science teachers’ experience and perceptions toward science teaching that is based on socio-scientific issues (SSIs). The participants were asked whether or not they already used corresponding practices in their own teaching and whether they experienced any challenges in implementing SSI-based pedagogies. Further focal points were the teachers’ views on student competencies that can be fostered through SSI-based education, the connection of SSI-based pedagogies with students’ character formation, potential topics for implementing SSIs in science education, and the teachers’ interest in such implementation. Data were collected with the help of a questionnaire that was administered to 99 science teachers. This was then followed up by interviews with 20 intentionally selected teachers taken from the overall sample. The study revealed that teachers’ familiarity with SSI-based pedagogies varies greatly. Regardless of their familiarity with the term, some of the teachers had already implemented corresponding practices at varying levels of intensity. Although almost all of the participants saw potential in SSI-based pedagogies for increasing student competency development and character formation, most of the respondents did not implement SSI-based teaching very often in their lessons. They mentioned several challenges that hindered them in implementing SSI in their teaching practices. Reasons included the lack of necessary students’ competencies, a lack of teacher expertise, the content in the official curriculum, inadequate facilities, and a lack of time for lesson preparation and implementation. When asked for ideas in implementing SSI-based education, teachers basically suggested topics related to the environment or technology as suitable for SSI-based education. In spite of the many challenges, most of the teachers were still interested in implementing SSIs in their classes.

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“…From the findings, there is a conflict or gap between the implementation of SSI that focus on students and the achievement of learning objectives [22]. Research with the same results also occurred in Indonesia by Nida et al that revealed that although many teachers consider SSI-based learning as a promising strategy, several obstacles need to be addressed immediately [21].…”

“…In Indonesia itself, SSI-based approaches do not appear to have been widely developed and have had only limited influence on curriculum reform in science education [21]. Research by Nida et al [21] revealed, although the teachers viewed SSI-based learning positively and saw its potential for character building; the participants did not show a high level of implementation of SSI-based learning in their class. It is suggested that teachers should be given more resources and provided comprehensive support to overcome the difficulties faced in implementing SSIbased learning [29,30].…”

“…The implementation of the SSI-based approach is still limited, even in Western countries, because many teachers still see the main objective of science learning as the delivery of scientific facts and theories [29]. In Indonesia itself, SSI-based approaches do not appear to have been widely developed and have had only limited influence on curriculum reform in science education [21]. Research by Nida et al [21] revealed, although the teachers viewed SSI-based learning positively and saw its potential for character building; the participants did not show a high level of implementation of SSI-based learning in their class.…”

“…In Indonesia, SSI-based teaching is still considered a new learning approach, so there is a need to know how teachers perceive this teaching innovation [21]. A survey on teacher perceptions of SSI-based teaching in Indonesia was conducted by Nida et al towards science teachers, who explored their perceptions of SSI-based teaching in junior high schools [21]. Meanwhile, another research focuses more on the implementation of SSI in the classroom.…”

“…Several studies have been conducted regarding teacher perceptions of SSI-based learning [21,11,15,20]. Lee et al investigated Korean high school science teachers' perceptions of how they introduced SSI to the science curriculum.…”