The promotion of socioscientific decision-making: Addressing four challenges in science education practice and research

A central objective of science education is to prepare students for the negotiation of science-related social issues (i.e., socioscientific issues) and to support them in reaching informed decisions. The ability to include both scientific and normative considerations into the negotiation has been summarized under the term socioscientific decision-making. Although socioscientific decision-making has been widely acknowledged as an essential component of students’ scientific literacy, difficulties remain concerning its promotion and assessment. In a first step, this dissertation outlines four challenges connected to the development of students’ socioscientific decision-making from a teaching-learning perspective (Challenge 1: The structure of the learning environment; Challenge 2: The complexity of socioscientific issues) and from a measurement perspective (Challenge 3: Conceptualization of socioscientific decision-making; Challenge 4: Assessment of socioscientific decision-making). To address the aforementioned challenges, three studies have been carried out as part of this dissertation. Each study aimed to extend the current knowledge about the development of students’ socioscientific decision-making in formal and non-formal learning opportunities. Study 1 comprises a systematic literature review, which considers empirical studies that explore the promotion of (1) students’ socioscientific decision-making in (2) sustainability-related and (3) extracurricular learning opportunities. Two different notions of socioscientific decision-making have been revealed as part of the results: Decision-making as a rational and mostly individual, and as a more cooperative, socially embedded process. Furthermore, no studies have been found with an equal distribution of attention among all three components. This shortcoming has been empirically investigated in Study 2, which assesses a sustainability-related extracurricular learning opportunity (an environmental science competition) in its effectiveness to promote participants’ socioscientific decision-making. The analysis of data supports the conceptualization of socioscientific decision-making as a multi-phased process; a conceptualization which has already been recognized among the science education community. On the other hand, the results from Study 2 confirm the presence of the two previously identified notions. The findings further suggest that participating in this science competition predominantly fosters the preparational phase of socioscientific decision-making. In contrast to Study 1 and Study 2, Study 3 focuses on formal learning opportunities (i.e., the regular classroom) and examines students’ argumentation as part of their decision-making process. The results of Study 3 provide evidence that an increase in issue familiarity does not enhance the diversity of argument types presented by students; however, the depth of already predominant types is manifested. Using both quantitative and qualitative methods, this dissertation provides novel insights into the promotion and assessment of students’ socioscientific decision-making by addressing the four previously identified challenges. The present work concludes with two final recommendations for contemporary science education. First, more attention should be paid to extracurricular learning opportunities, as they can empower students to investigate socioscientific issues that are meaningful to their lives. The second recommendation stresses the value of interdisciplinary working for the negotiation of complex socioscientific issues and thus the development of students’ socioscientific decision-making. """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""Note: The manuscript of Study 3 (pp. 91- 119) is a previous non-peer-reviewed version of an article which has now been accepted for publication in the International Journal of Science Education, published by Taylor & Francis: Garrecht, C. Reiss, M. J., & Harms, U. (2021). 'I wouldn't want to be the animal in use nor the patient in need' – The role of issue familiarity in students' socioscientific argumentation. DOI: 10.1080/09500693.2021.1950944

Students’ Decision-Making in Education for Sustainability-Related Extracurricular Activities—A Systematic Review of Empirical Studies

Equipping students with the capability to perform considerate decision-making is a key competence to elaborate socio-scientific issues. Particularly in the socio-scientific context of sustainable development, decision-making is required for the processing of information and the implementation of sustainable action. Extracurricular activities in education for sustainable development (ESD) offer a suitable format to promote decision-making due to their multidisciplinary and more informal structure. The purpose of this literature review is therefore to analyze empirical studies that explore students’ (1) decision-making in (2) ESD-related (3) extracurricular activities. Following the preferred-reporting of items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, a systematic search yielded 19 out of 365 articles, each of them addressing all three components. Despite the theoretical relationship, hardly any empirical enquiry is found examining the trinomial interrelation with an equal consideration of all components. Contrarily, we argue that each is positioned in favor for only one component with the others serving as a backdrop. It follows that the full potential of an equal distribution between all three foci has not been explored yet; even though integrating sustainability-related issues in extracurricular activities displays a promising learning opportunity to optimally foster students’ decision-making. Instead, studies that concentrate primarily on decision-making as a quantitatively measurable competence were predominant

‘Should We Be Doing It, Should We Not Be Doing It, Who Could Be Harmed?’

Many science educators have argued in favour of including socioscientific issues (SSI) in general, and ethical issues in particular, in school science. However, there have been a number of objections to this proposal, and it is widely acknowledged that such teaching places additional demands on science teachers. This study examined the curricula, textbooks and views of both student teachers and established teachers in England and in Germany regarding the teaching of ethical issues in secondary school science, particularly the ethical issues surrounding animal tests. Analysis of the curriculum documents for secondary or upper secondary school science showed that in both countries, ethical considerations feature strongly. However, in both countries, the overall treatments in the school textbooks of the ethical issues of animal testing were generally ‘thin’, and little opportunity was given for students to consider different ethical frameworks. The teacher and student teacher interviews revealed that interviewees generally gave ethical issues less emphasis than fundamental science. A number of interviewees referred to a lack of appropriate teaching material, and many of them also had concerns that such teaching could give rise to classroom management issues or that they might be accused of indoctrinating their students. Given the increasing acknowledgement of the need for school science to address so-called wicked socioscientific problems, these findings are a concern. We end with recommendations for curricula, for textbooks and for teacher education

Ein Seminarkonzept zur Erstellung digitaler Unterrichtsmaterialien in den Naturwissenschaften

Der Klimawandel, das Artensterben oder die Umweltverschmutzung – es gibt zahlreiche großen Themen, die unsere Gesellschaft vor Herausforderungen stellen. Die Begegnung mit globalen Herausforderungen führt zu komplexen Fragestellungen, für deren Erarbeitung neben umfassenden naturwissenschaftlichen Kenntnissen auch der Einbezug von gesellschaftlich geprägten Werten und Normen erforderlich sind (Sadler, 2004). Diese zumeist kontrovers diskutierten Fragestellungen werden in der Literatur als Socio-Scientific issues (SSI) bezeichnet, die sowohl naturwissenschaftliche Bezüge als auch gesellschaftliche Relevanz aufweisen sollten (Sadler, 2011). Die Bearbeitung von SSI im Schulkontext ermöglicht es, naturwissenschaftliche Inhalte für Lernende greifbar zu machen und einen hohen Realitätsbezug herzustellen. Doch die Integration von SSI in den naturwissenschaftlichen Unterricht kann Lehrkräfte vor Herausforderungen stellen (z. B. Dunlop & Veneu, 2019; Levinson, 2004). Eine zentrale Herausforderung besteht dabei darin, dass es an ausreichender Unterstützung beispielsweise durch die Kollaboration mit Kolleginnen und Kollegen aus anderen Fachbereichen mangelt (Garrecht et al., 2022; Pedersen & Totten, 2001). Gerade diese Zusammenarbeit zwischen unterschiedlichen Fachbereichen kann es aber möglich machen, Lernenden eine umfassende und realistische Bearbeitung von SSI zu ermöglichen. Die Zusammenarbeit zwischen Lehrkräften sollte dabei bereits im Laufe des Lehramtsstudiums angebahnt werden (siehe z. B. Seremet et al., 2021). Eine zweite zentrale Herausforderung für die Implementation von SSI im Unterricht besteht darin, dass es geeigneter Materialien bedarf, die der Komplexität des Themas gerecht werden. Hierzu bietet sich der Einsatz von digitalen Lernprodukten wie Erklärvideos und Podcasts an, die die Komplexität der Inhalte auf einer für die Lernenden ansprechenden Weise darstellen können (z. B. Cébrian-Robles et al., 2021). Im Rahmen des Beitrags wird daher ein Seminarkonzept vorgestellt, das angehende Lehrkräfte der Naturwissenschaften auf eine interdisziplinäre Vernetzung verschiedener Fachbereiche zur Entwicklung von digitalen Lernprodukten im Kontext von SSI vorbereiten soll. Die Struktur und der Ablauf des Kurses, die ersten entstandenen Lernprodukte sowie die gesammelten Ergebnisse aus der Pilotierung im Sommersemester 2022 werden im Beitrag vorgestellt

Ergänzungsmaterial zum Beitrag „Der Goldschakal – inzwischen auch bei uns heimisch“

Am Beispiel des Wolfs (Canis lupus) kann die Lerneinheit zum Bewerten von Maßnahmen zur Wildtierregulation erweitert werden