The purpose of the current study is to qualitatively explore how Thai preservice biology teachers make decisions on, and informally reason about, an agriculture-based socioscientific issue (SSI). The SSI arises mainly as a controversy between two social classes, namely the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors, involving haze pollution.…

The implementation of the value of life and integrity has been done in the teaching and learning process of science by moral problems in life that relate to biological issues and to train the students' capability in problem-solving. It stimulated the students' moral development involving logic, feeling, and behaviors deemed as right and wrong in…

Science education motivates students to be problem solvers who utilize scientific knowledge for the social problems that they encounter in their lives. However, for better solutions for the problem, just knowledge of scientific concepts would not be enough because students need to approach problems aesthetically also. Understanding social,…

The case study described in this article focused on a topic of real national concern, landslides, which can trigger sudden and tragic environmental problems and bring considerable loss of life. Landslides occur in many parts of Thailand, for example on mountain slopes, areas eroded by water or areas with rock degradation (Department of Mineral…

This activity provides opportunities for middle school students to design bio-inspired, eco-friendly vehicles. Twenty-four 8th grade students (12 girls, 12 boys) engaged in the activity which was implemented in four class periods, 40 minutes each, in an elective Environmental Education course. During the activity, students engaged in engineering…

Today, individuals need a solid understanding of how earth as a system works in order to understand and develop solutions for science-based issues affecting societies on a global scale such as natural disasters, global warming or COVID-19 pandemic. Humans also deliberate space investigations, such as interplanetary travels and life in space.…

This article describes how a class of year 9 (age 13-14) students engaged in a research-informed and negotiated action science project to address socio-scientific issues. The project was informed by the 'STEPWISE' curriculum framework. Evidence suggests that students benefited from collaborative problem-solving, developing confidence, motivation…

The purpose of this article is to provide an example of using real world issues as tools for science teaching and learning. Using real world issues provides students with experiences in learning in problem-based environments and encourages them to apply their content knowledge to solving current and local problems.

Problem-solving strategies learned by physics undergraduates should prepare them for real-world contexts as they transition from students to professionals. Yet, graduate students in physics-intensive research face problems that go beyond problem sets they experienced as undergraduates and are solved by different strategies than are typically…

Developing problem solving skills is often accepted as a desirable goal in many educational settings. However, there is little evidence to support that students are better problem solvers after graduating. The students can solve routine problems but they confronted difficulties when adapting their prior knowledge for the solution of new problems.…

Science educators increasingly call for students to address authentic scientific problems in science class. One form of authentic science problem--socioscientific issue--requires that students engage in complex reasoning by considering both scientific and social implications of problems. Computer-based scaffolding can support this process by…

Despite the belief that emotions are important in the learning process, research in the area of emotions and learning, especially in science, is scant. Modelling and SSI argumentation have shared with respect to the emphasis in recent science standards reports as core scientific practices that need to be part of science teaching and learning. Even…

The Take Action Project (TAP) was created to help middle school students take informed and effective action on science-related issues. The seven steps of TAP ask students to (1) choose a science-related problem of interest to them, (2) research their problem, (3) select an action to take on the problem, (4) plan that action, (5) take action, (6)…

A problem that is still unexplored in the field of socioscientific issues (SSI) and that was explored in this study is how different students decide upon a SSI they are discussing, how their justifications change during the instruction and how they use (or not) the evidence from the learning environment to support their justifications. For the…

The Social Problem Solving through Science (SPSS) project engaged middle school-aged youth in the study of local environmental challenges with implications for human health and well-being, both globally and locally. Students considered environmental risk factors in a series of structured activities to develop background knowledge on environmental…