Examining tensions in the socioscientific issues classroom: Students' border crossings into a new culture of science

Abstract

In the socioscientific issues (SSI) classroom, students need to cross the border between the subcultures of science (i.e., school science vs. everyday science). Traditional school contexts tend to present science as positivistic knowledge and unshakable truth unaffected by sociocultural factors. In contrast, everyday science, including SSI, is more nuanced, context‐based, socially and culturally embedded. Thus, learning in an SSI classroom requires students to make additional efforts to successfully navigate between the subcultures of science. The expected norms located within these two educational contexts can create academic and sociocultural tensions for students. It is therefore necessary to explore the tensions caused these differential norms in order to successfully implement SSI. Through the lens of cultural‐historical activity theory, we attempted to identify possible tensions that originate by implementing SSI instruction in a setting where teachers and students are accustomed to traditional lecture‐based classroom instruction. One hundred thirty ninth graders at a public middle school located in Seoul, South Korea, participated in SSI programs on genetic modification technology during seven class periods over three to 4 weeks. Data was collected by classroom observation, audio‐taping while students participated in various types of discourse, and semistructured interviews. We identified four noteworthy phenomena including intolerance of uncertainty, scientism, a sense of rivalry, and reaching an expedient and easy consensus. By revealing and understanding these tensions and phenomena, we aim to help inform teachers (and teacher educators) recognize instructional clues that can change not only students' epistemological views and attitudes toward science and science classes, but also better navigate the norms of classroom culture.

Epistemic beliefs and prior knowledge as predictors of the construction of different types of arguments on socioscientific issues

“…We focus on the construction of different types of arguments because the ability to produce arguments that integrate multiple positions or accounts reflects one's depth of reasoning (Nussbaum & Schraw, 2007). Also, the ability to consider a variety of perspectives is fundamental for decision-making, especially in the case of SSIs, which are complex, open-ended problems that involve controversial and conflicting information (Herman, Zeidler, & Newton, 2018;Lee, Lee, & Zeidler, 2019;Lindahl, Folkesson, & Zeidler, 2019;Zeidler, 2014). Although previous research has shown that there is a relationship between sophisticated epistemic beliefs and argumentation skills, in terms of the number of arguments produced about an issue (Mason & Scirica, 2006;Songer & Linn, 1992;Wu & Tsai, 2011) and the quality of arguments produced (Barzilai & Eshet-Alkalai, 2015;Baytelman, Iordanou, & Constantinou, 2016;Berland et al, 2016;Jiménez-Aleixandre, 2014;McNeill, González-Howard, Katsh-Singer, & Loper, 2017;Ryu & Sandoval, 2012), particularly the ability to construct counterarguments (Iordanou, 2016b;Wu & Tsai, 2011;Zavala & Kuhn, 2017), the relationship between epistemic beliefs and the types of arguments produced (diversity of arguments) has not been investigated yet.…”

Developing deep learning in science classrooms: Tactics to manage epistemic uncertainty during whole‐class discussion

“…Chen et al (2019) found that when science teachers managed uncertainty in an argumentative environment, they tended to reduce or avoid student uncertainty during discussion and treated it as a threat to learning science. Lee et al (2020) explored how South Korean ninth graders discussed a socio‐scientific issue about genetically modified organisms. They found that both teachers and students exhibited a lack of tolerance of uncertainty caused by multiple perspectives and different interpretations.…”

A curricular Delphi study to improve the science education of secondary school students in Spain

“…For example, Lindahl, Folkesson, and Zeidler (2019) showed that students demand that content be tied to social issues. Other studies, such as Romine, Sadler, and Kinslow (2017) and Herman, Sadler, Zeidler, and Newton (2018) advocate for this approach to teaching, and Lee, Lee, and Zeidler (2019) found that when teachers use social issues as contexts for science education, students need to make additional efforts to apply what they have learned in the classroom to everyday contexts.…”