Pre-service Science Teachers’ Views towards Socio-scientific Issues and Socio-scientific Issue-based Instruction

Abstract

Today, many countries have revised their science curricula to ensure an effective science-learning environment and Turkey is one of such countries. Thanks to the revisions within this scope, socio-scientific issues were integrated into the curriculum. Their presence has brought about the requirement of knowing what socio-scientific issues are and how to integrate them into lessons. The aim of this study is to explore pre-service science teachers’ views towards socio-scientific issues and socio-scientific issue-based instruction in Turkey. To this end, it utilized qualitative research method. The qualitative data were collected from thirty pre-service science teachers through semi-structured interviews and they were analyzed through content analysis technique. The study revealed that while some participants were aware of socio-scientific issues, some were not. In addition, some did not know those issues existing in science education curricula, and how to deal with them during lessons. Besides, participants did not have sufficient self-efficacy beliefs towards dealing with socio-scientific issues in real classroom settings. These results suggest that socio-scientific issues should be integrated into science education programs of universities and more teaching opportunities should be provided for pre-service teachers to practice SSI-based instruction.