Science teachers' practices on socioscientific issue-based science teaching

Science has advanced in such a way that it results in technological improvements that bring about changes. Societies' reactions to these changes have led to contentious and contradictory problems on which different perspectives exist. These subjects are called as as socioscientific issues. Many science educators today believe that discussing socioscientific issues in the classrooms is necessary for scientific literacy. Decision making about personal and societal issues involving science requires the ability to analyze data from various sources, to evaluate the data, and to morally reason about these issues. Socioscientific issues must be covered in the curriculum in order to accomplish the goal of scientific literacy. The goal of the science curriculum is to help students improve their ability to reason, scientific thinking habits, and decision-making abilities. To develop these cognitive skills and realize the need of having more scientifically literate people in a society, it is crucial to integrate socioscientific topics within science courses. At this point, how to teach socioscientific issues in science courses has become an important concern. In this context, the aim of this study is to reveal how teachers teach socioscientific issues. To elaborate, it is aimed to reveal the existing classroom practices of science teachers about how they teach the subject in science lessons including socioscientific issues, their knowledge levels on socioscientific issues and their views on socioscientific issue-based science teaching. The study group of the research consists of 10 science teachers working at the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grade levels. Case study, one of the qualitative research designs, was used in the study and interviews were conducted as a data collection tool. The obtained data were subjected to systematic qualitative data analysis. According to the findings, the science teachers in this study mostly used lecturing and questioning techniques in their classrooms to teach subjects including socioscientific issues. The teachers would prefer the discussion method followed by a decision-making activity if they used socioscientific issue-based science teaching. According to the teachers' opinions, the following factors can prevent the implementation of socioscientific issue-based science teaching: less emphasis on socioscientific issues in the curriculum, insufficient time allocated for the lesson, and the priority on academic achievement. All of the interviewed teachers stated that they would prefer socioscientific issue-based science teaching when these problems are resolved. In addition, they stated that socioscientific issue-based science teaching would contribute to the students' development in cognitive and affective domains. Key Words: Socioscientific Issue-Based Science Teaching, Socioscientific Issues, Scientific Literacy, Science Education, Middle School Science Course