Development and implementation of the socioscientific issue-based unit plan in the context of "effects of pesticide use in agriculture and collapsing bee hives"

n this study, the main purpose is to design and implement a SSI-based unit plan in the context of "Pesticide Use in Agriculture". The unit plan was developed based on the instructional framework, Socioscientific Issues Teaching and Learning (SSI-TL) Model, developed by Sadler, Foulk & Friedrichsen (2017) and 5E Model. The content knowledge that is intended to focus behind the SSI was determined as genetic concepts. These concepts can be ranged as "gene, DNA, chromosome, structure of DNA (phosphate, organic base, hydrogen bonds, nucleotide, and deoxsyribose)". The unit consists of 7 lesson plans and its implementation lasted about 12 lessons, 6 weeks. The students who attended to the SSI-based instruction was thirty five 7th grades one. The SSI-based instruction was implemented in a middle school in İstanbul, Üsküdar and in the spring term of 2018. Two measurement tools were used. One of them is Quantitative Assessment of Socioscientific Reasoning (QuASSR) survey, focused on assessing students' Socioscientific Reasoning (SSR). Validity and reliability of this survey in Turkish context and according to the middle school level were provided in the scope of this study. The second measurement tool was the Genetic Content Exam (GCE). This exam was developed in the scope of the thesis. Its validity and reliability was provided. A reliability coefficient (KR-20) was attained to be .839. Measurement tools were implemented two times during the study as before and after the application of the unit plan. So, implementation part of the study is described as one group pretest-posttest design. The data attained from the QuASSR and the GCE were analyzed via SPSS program. It is found that SSI-based instruction positively affected students' average scores on the GCE; however, there was not a statistically significant change on the scores. Students' scores on the QuASSR did not change positively in the post-test; and similar to the GCE, there was not a statistically significant change on the scores. The reasons for the inconclusiveness in the SSR level and the GCE were discussed in the discussion section.