Measuring Pupils’ Attitudes Towards Socioscientific Issues

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a large-scale study to validate a questionnaire that measures pupils' attitudes towards socioscientific issues (the PASSI questionnaire). We define socioscientific issues (SSI) as those topics that are about complex societal and technological developments that may induce ethical dilemmas. In this study, the term attitudes describes a combination of attitude components that relate to pupils' engagement with SSI. Based on a literature review within social and educational psychology and sociology, on topics such as attitude development, scientific citizenship, social or civic engagement, and SSI teaching and learning, we developed a framework that describes several underlying components of pupils' attitudes towards SSI. These components were translated into nine scales that comprise the PASSI. Results of a validation study among 1370 pupils (age 8-15), using exploratory factor analyses on subsample 1 and subsequently confirmatory factor analyses on subsample 2, indicated an eight-factor structure that showed good convergent and discriminant validity. Furthermore, the PASSI instrument showed adequate measurement invariance for boys and girls, pupils in primary and secondary education, and for pupils at different secondary educational tracks. The results are discussed in terms of directions for future research to further investigate the validity of the PASSI questionnaire. To conclude, the PASSI questionnaire validly measures eight attitudes towards SSI and could serve as a tool that raises awareness of pupils' engagement with SSI. It can be used by researchers and teachers as a diagnostic instrument, to compare groups, and to study effects of SSI education.

Reasoning on Controversial Science Issues in Science Education and Science Communication

“…In future research, the fine-grained assessment of general attitudes toward SSI brought forward by Klaver and Walma van der Molen [67] could be combined with the method of measuring justifications toward scientific consensus on specific CSI proposed in this article to shed more light on the different justification types. Furthermore, a research design integrating a task on SSR would be beneficial, e.g., by using the QuASSR [65].…”

“…This is because the questions concerning CSI are neither open-ended nor unsolvable dilemmas [11]. Therefore, frameworks developed to assess SSR competencies [65], decision-making on SSI [66], and SSI attitudes [67] cannot be applied to CSI in which a clear scientific consensus concerning scientific knowledge and/or its application has been reached. Assessing how people reason concerning their attitude toward a CSI asks for different approaches, e.g., the identification of informal reasoning types [37,61,68].…”

Çocukların Sosyobilimsel Konulara Yönelik Tutumları Ölçeğinin Geçerlik ve Güvenirlik Çalışması

“…In this study, it was aimed to adaptation a measurement tool to Turkish language and culture, which is included in the relevant literature and developed to reveal pupils' attitudes towards SSI. In the study, a scale that conducted by Klaver and van der Molen (2020) with Dutch students and then translated into English was adapted to Turkish. Thus, the study validity and reliability of the relevant scale was carried out and the real factor structure was determined after the adaptation.…”

“…A total of 500 students participated in the study. In the study, data were collected with the help of the scale developed by Klaver and van der Molen (2020). Permission was obtained from the authors for the relevant scale and the scale adaptation process was initiated.…”

Students' engagement with Socioscientific issues: Use of sources of knowledge and attitudes

“…These questionnaires were developed within the project “Working together towards scientific citizenship” (Guérin, 2018; Guérin et al, 2021). Previously, we validated the PASSI questionnaire with students in primary and secondary education in the Netherlands (Klaver & Walma van der Molen, 2021). In the current study, we first investigated what sources of knowledge students use by means of our second questionnaire.…”