Graduation Year
2012
Document Type
Ed. Specalist
Degree
Ed.S.
Degree Granting Department
Secondary Education
Major Professor
dana l. zeidler
Keywords
argumentation, evolution, science literacy, socioscientific issues, socioscientific reasoning
Abstract
Abstract
This thesis investigates the use of socioscientific issues (SSI) in the high school science classroom as an introduction to argumentation and socioscientific reasoning, with the goal of improving students' scientific literacy (SL). Current research is reviewed that supports the likelihood of students developing a greater conceptual understanding of scientific theories as well as a deeper understanding of the nature of science (NOS), through participation in informal and formal forms of argumentation in the context of SSI. Significant gains in such understanding may improve a student's ability to recognize the rigor, legitimacy, and veracity of scientific claims and better discern science from pseudoscience. Furthermore, students that participate in significant SSI instruction by negotiating a range of science-related social issues can make significant gains in content knowledge and develop the life-long skills of argumentation and evidence-based reasoning, goals not possible in traditional lecture-based science instruction. SSI-based instruction may therefore help students become responsible citizens. This synthesis also suggests that that the improvements in science literacy and NOS understanding that develop from sustained engagement in SSI-based instruction will better prepare students to examine and scrutinize socially controversial scientific theories (i.e., evolution, global warming, and the Big Bang).
Scholar Commons Citation
Pinzino, Dean William, "Socioscientific Issues: A Path Towards Advanced ScientificLiteracy and Improved Conceptual Understanding of Socially Controversial Scientific Theories" (2012). USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/4387
