Socioscientific issues in primary school contexts: A systematic review of research on students and practitioners

The aim of this study is to systematically examine the characteristics of studies focusing on socioscientific issues (SSI) conducted with primary school students, classroom teachers, and pre-service teachers. The research was designed as a systematic review. Data were obtained from peer-reviewed, full-text articles published in English, accessed through the Web of Science and Scopus databases using predetermined keywords. The collected data were analyzed using the content analysis method. This study found that socioscientific issues (SSI) instruction in studies conducted with elementary students, teachers, and preservice teachers is grounded in diverse theoretical frameworks, with particular emphasis on scientific literacy and the nature of science, argumentation, socio-scientific reasoning, pedagogical content knowledge/professional development, values and citizenship education, and decision-making and risk analysis approaches. The analyses showed that the most frequently addressed topics were environmental issues, energy, health, biotechnology, and climate change, and that instructional methods such as argumentation, collaborative learning, role-playing, project-based learning, and technology-supported teaching were commonly used. The findings revealed that SSI instruction enhances students' scientific literacy, reasoning, epistemological beliefs, ethical sensitivity, and democratic citizenship, while also improving preservice teachers' pedagogical competence and self-efficacy. Overall, it was concluded that SSI constitutes an effective instructional domain that supports both cognitive and affective dimensions of learning.