Should great lakes city build a new power plant? How youth navigate socioscientific issues

Abstract

There is a growing consensus that simply learning enough science to decipher public debates on socioscientific issues will not make citizens better equipped to handle the complex and illstructured problems these controversial issues present. This study highlights the interaction and complex interplay between youth authored and appropriated frames for making sense of socioscientific issues. To do so, we analyze how two middle-school aged youth, in an after-school program focused on green energy technologies, made sense of and took a stance on whether their city should build a new hybrid power plant over the course of a 13-week unit. Using critical sociocultural perspectives on learning and qualitative case study, we examined how the two youth navigated the issue and the resources, scientific and otherwise, they leveraged in defining the problem spaces involved in whether their city should build a new power plant. Our findings indicate that the scientific knowledge youth brought with them and acquired over the course of the investigation influenced how they made sense of the issue, but their knowledge was deeply connected to a range of personal and public discourses that influenced how they defined the issue and why it mattered to them. In particular, it was through how they framed their range of knowledge and experiences that they were able to recognize the multi-dimensional nature of the problem and propose complex solutions resonant with the science they understood. Our study offers conceptual tools for teaching and learning socioscientific issues. ß

Scaffolding argumentation about water quality: a mixed-method study in a rural middle school

“…Such problems include socioscientific issues (SSIs)-ill-structured problems that are addressed through consideration of scientific, social, and ethical concerns (Kolstø 2001;Sadler and Donnelly 2006). The perspective of the problem solver (stakeholder position) is central to consideration of potential solutions (Rose and Barton 2012). For example, when considering whether a factory should be allowed if it will release pollution into the sea, students needed to weigh potential drawbacks (e.g., habitat degradation) against job creation (Tal and Kedmi 2006).…”

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

“…The majority of studies was conducted in Europe (n = 13, Germany [80][81][82][83][84], United Kingdom [85,86] Cyprus [87,88], Israel [89], the Netherlands [90], Czech Republic [91], and Spain [92]), followed by studies from North America (n = 4, America [93][94][95] and Canada [96]). There was a scattering of studies from Asia (n = 1, Singapore [97]) and Oceania (n = 1, Australia [67]).…”

“…These students are typically 15 to 18 years old and in grade 9 to 12. Studies that were undertaken in lower secondary education (n = 7 [87][88][89]91,[94][95][96]) comprised students aged 11 to 14 belonging to grade 6 to 8. One study was conducted in a primary school (n = 1 [85]) with children aged 7-12.…”

“…Half of the papers followed a qualitative research design (n = 9 [80,82,85,91,92,[94][95][96][97]). Seven papers (n = 7 [83,[86][87][88][89][90]93]) used a pre-post-test design with intervention and three articles (n = 3 [80,81,84]) chose a pre-post-follow up with control group test design.…”

“…Papers with this focus (n = 14 [67,[80][81][82][83][84][86][87][88]90,[92][93][94][95]) define decision-making as a competence required in the process of reasoning. Derived from this perception as a competence, decision-making appears to be investigable in its structure and development.…”