The effectiveness of the socio-scientific issue-based climate change awareness program

This study aims to examine the effect of the Socioscientific Issue-Based Climate Change Awareness Program (SSI-CCAP) on middle school students' awareness of climate change. In the first phase of the research, the Climate Change Awareness Scale (CCAS) and the SSI-CCAP were developed specifically for middle school students. The developed CCAS consists of 16 items and two dimensions: cognitive and behavioral. During the development process of the scale, content and face validity, construct validity, and criterion validity analyses were conducted. For the reliability analysis, internal consistency coefficients and item analyses were employed. The analyses revealed that CCAS is a valid and reliable instrument for measuring middle school students' climate change awareness levels. The effectiveness of the SSI-CCAP program was tested through an explanatory sequential mixed methods design. In this context, quantitative data were collected first, followed by qualitative data to provide an in-depth understanding of the findings. In the quantitative phase, students' awareness levels were measured using a pre-test/post-test design via the CCAS. In the qualitative phase, semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore students' experiences with SSI-CCAP and the program's effects on their awareness. Quantitative data were analyzed using t-tests, while qualitative data were evaluated through content analysis by generating codes and themes. The research was carried out during the 2023–2024 academic year in two different seventh-grade classes of a middle school located in a small district in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey, involving a total of 55 students. The SSI-CCAP activities were implemented with the experimental group for two hours per week over a ten-week period, while no intervention was applied to the control group. The quantitative findings indicated that SSI-CCAP significantly increased students' awareness of climate change. The qualitative findings showed that the program supported students in understanding climate change as a multifaceted and complex phenomenon, deepened their conceptual understanding, and fostered environmental responsibility. Students were able to relate the knowledge they acquired to their daily life actions, and reported that the program encouraged interaction, collaboration, and active participation. Moreover, the activities were described as educational, engaging, and conducive to discussion-based learning. The results demonstrate that SSI-CCAP is an effective instructional model that enhances climate change awareness at cognitive, affective, and behavioral levels. It highlights the pedagogical significance of the program in teaching complex environmental issues like climate change, offering an innovative teaching approach for science and environmental education, and contributing to the development of sustainable living consciousness.