Towards a Theoretical Framework for Teaching Controversial Socio‐scientific Issues

Socioscientific Issues and Multidisciplinarity in School Science Textbooks

“…One approach that has been advocated as a move towards overturning this pattern is the inclusion of socioscientific issues (SSIs) in science lessons (see, for example, Zeidler, Sadler, Simmons, & Howes, 2005). In the relevant literature SSIs have been described as problems that 'reflect developments in science and technology that are a prominent part of the contemporary socio-political landscape in industrialised countries' (Levinson, 2006(Levinson, , p. 1201. Others have stated that this term has 'come to represent a variety of social dilemmas with conceptual, procedural or technological associations with science' (Sadler & Zeidler, 2005, p. 112).…”

Contribuciones de una intervención didáctica usando cuestiones sociocientíficas para desarrollar el pensamiento crítico

“…34.2 (2016): 43-65 de la biodiversidad en los ecosistemas acuáticos. Resultados similares también son descritos por Levinson (2006) con otros ejemplos sobre el uso de CSC, como el caso del avance científico frente a la cura y tratamiento de enfermedades, el acceso a un alimento seguro o el suministro de energía (Korolija, Rajic y Mandic, 2008;Wu y Tsai, 2010) o la mejora en medios de comunicación (Christensen, 2007).…”

“…Las CSC suelen incluir debate entre los expertos científicos, los políticos y los ciudadanos cuando se requiere la toma de decisiones sobre el uso de la ciencia y la tecnología (Levinson, 2006;Albe, 2008;Díaz y Jiménez, 2012). Por ejemplo, Sadler (2004) añade que las CSC se constituyen en una posibilidad para abordar dimensiones económicas, políticas, éticas, religiosas y ambientales de cuestiones científicas, que no se tratan en los problemas tradicionales encontrados en las clases de ciencias.…”

Eliciting Students' Understanding of a Local Socioscientific Issue Through the Use of Critical Response Pedagogies

“…The literature has highlighted SSI approaches for an essential reform to science curricula, focusing on controversial and socially relevant issues (Kolsto, 2001; Lee & Witz, 2009;Levinson, 2006;Zeidler, 2014). While some science educators have expressed concerns that using socially relevant curricula can threaten the integrity of traditional science instruction and students" understanding of basic science concepts (DeBoer, 1991), several science educators have strongly advocated for using socioscientific issues as a context for teaching science (Bingle & Gaskell, 1994;Zeidler & Keefer, 2003, Zeidler, 2014.…”

“…Since the Science, Technology, and Society (STS) movement in the 1970s there has been a strong call for the inclusion of controversial socioscientific issues (SSI) in science curriculum (Levinson, 2006); however, addressing controversial socioscientific issues in science classrooms has always been challenging (Dillon, 1994;Osborne, Duschl, & Fairbrother, 2002). Despite the pedagogical potentials of controversial SSI to enhance dialogue and discussion among students (Zeidler, 2014) and provide students opportunities to learn complex decision making processes (Burek & Zeidler, 2015), the literature indicates that such local, controversial issues cause hesitancy due to potential conflicts between teachers, students, and community members (McGinnis & Simmons, 1999).…”