The focus of this paper is on the Science-Technology-Society (STS) initiative, developed in the 1980s, subsequently expanded to STSE to acknowledge environmental concerns and later expanded further to include the provision of opportunities for students to confront socioscientific issues (SSI), often of a controversial and certainly of a topical…

It is almost 20 years since Michael Riley first invited Key Stage 3 history teachers to 'choose and plant' their enquiry questions. Many members of the history education community have taken up that invitation, making use of overarching enquiry questions to structure students' learning. But what is meant by enquiry in this context is sometimes…

This review essay explores the complexities and challenges involved in addressing controversial issues in the K-12 public school classroom, drawing from two recent books: Noddings and Brooks's "Teaching Controversial Issues: The Case for Critical Thinking and Moral Commitment in the Classroom" and Zimmerman and Robertson's "The Case…

This article proposes introducing a strategy of controversy into human rights curriculum. First, it refers to the development of human rights education in Latin America and illustrates how controversy can be incorporated in the different disciplines of the curriculum. Second, the article shows how human rights from a controversial perspective can…

This article addresses some of the curriculum implications of adopting a socioscientific issues (SSIs)-oriented approach to science education, including (a) the need to provide scientific knowledge on a need-to-know basis and adapted to the complexity, multidimensionality, and fluidity of real-world situations and the constraints of particular…

Problem statement: In the context of science education reform in Thailand, we need to prepare science teachers who can face science and social issues controversial; teachers can response the question socioscientific issues and let their students to meet the goal of science education. This study investigated the conception leading preservice…

Decision making is influenced by multiple factors, especially when approaching controversial socio-scientific issues, such as stem cell research. In the present study, we used qualitative data from 132 college student papers in a biotechnology course to investigate how students made decisions about stem cell research issues. Students indicated…

The teaching of ethics or controversial issues in health education must meet two criteria: (1) The controversy must be addressed from various viewpoints; and (2) The issues must involve questions of right and wrong. Examples of values clarification activities are given. (JN)

Argues that geography teachers should help students explore ethical issues in geography, such as questioning where exploitation ends and conservation begins. Outlines guidelines for ethics, considers pedgogical implications, and offers strategies for motivating students and making geography relevant. (DB)

A compilation of program ideas and related newspaper articles, cartoons, and visual aids, this booklet describes the objectives and procedure for the implementation of a pilot program at Frank W. Cox High School in Virginia Beach, Virginia, that emphasizes ethics education and the value of writing as a means to promote critical thinking. The first…

Summarizes the results of an International Bioethics Education Survey conducted in Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. Compares knowledge and teaching of 15 selected topics with particular emphasis on the teaching of social, ethical, and environmental issues of in vitro fertilization, prenatal diagnosis, biotechnology, nuclear power, pesticides,…

As part of a federal grant to develop an across-the-curriculum ethics program, ethics instruction was integrated into English classes at Colorado's Community College of Aurora (CCA). In the English classes, students were first asked to read case studies from CCA's ethics handbook detailing specific ethical problems. In subsequent classes, students…