Decision-making in health issues: Teenagers' use of science and other discourses

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis was to develop knowledge about young individuals' reasoning and how they justify their standpoints concerning trustworthiness and decision-making in issues connected to health where available information is contradictory or uncertain. In the first step almost 300 students in Swedish upper secondary school answered a questionnaire, which had different types of questions about pseudoscience and science. The results demonstrated large differences in acceptance between the different pseudoscientific statements. There was no apparent relationship between the students' pseudoscientific beliefs and their factual knowledge about the human body. However, the analysis revealed that students who have taken three or more science courses have relatively lower faith to pseudoscientific ideas.

The Impact of Microbiology Instruction on Students’ Perceptions of Risks Related to Microbial Illness

“…One possible strategy to alter students' risk-related behavior may be a problem-centered approach that uses authentic and controversial debates on socioscientific issues to frame instruction (Marks & Eilks, 2009). Lundstrom (2011) suggested that teaching about risk and uncertainty may prepare students to make future decisions about socioscientific issues. Our research and those of others such as Lundstrom suggest that making the link explicit between health-related instruction and relevant experiences may be particularly important.…”

“…This has also resulted in an increase in the movement of pathogens from one country to the next. Today's students are increasingly confronted with real-world health issues related to microbial illness and the growing challenge for science educators is to provide students with accurate information on how to manage threats from microbial infection (Lundstrom, 2011). For example, in 2009, schools in the USA were closed as students contracted the H1N1 swine flu virus and communities across the country were told to prepare disaster plans for an influenza pandemic (Ripley, 2009).…”

Barnlitteraturens tekniklandskap : En didaktisk vandring från Nils Holgersson till Pettson och Findus

“…Tekniken kan bestå av enskilda artefakter men ofta är tekniken delar (komponenter) i större sammankopplade system och helheter, det vill säga tekniska system. 49 Bruno Latour anser exempelvis att samhälle och teknik inte går att separera från varandra, eftersom samhället inte är en enhet som är skild från allt det som ingår i det. Teknik och samhälle är ömsesidigt konstitutiva, är helt beroende av varandra och bokstavligen skapar varandra.…”

Linguistic Challenges in Mendelian Genetics: Teachers’ Talk in Action

“…Thematic pattern analysis has been found to be useful in earlier studies in science education. For instance, in two recent studies Lundström () used the approach to identify typical thematic patterns in student discussions about the human body and health, whereas Nygård Larsson () analyzed how explicitly teachers and textbooks addressed semantic relations between systematic biology concepts. Our focus in this study is on linguistic aspects, not because other semiotic aspects are less important, but because we believe that spoken language is a major source of information for the students, which has been unexplored in the context of genetic teaching.…”