Socio-scientific Issues-based science education as a promising response to the call for more relevant and societally embedded science learning in Indonesia

Abstract

The following dissertation is a cumulative thesis which consists of four articles and one book chapter. The articles are all written in English. Three articles have been published in international journals for science education research, one article is under review, a book chapter was published in the book of collection of invited papers by the 24th Symposium on Chemistry and Science Education held at the University of Bremen, in June 1-3, 2018. The first 3 articles are based on studies regarding socio-scientific issue (SSI)-based education in Indonesia, which involved science teachers, either in-service science teachers (ISTs) or pre-service science teachers (PSTs). These studies serve as empirical base derived from the experience and view of teachers for the needs to develop SSI-based science teaching materials which support the SSI-based education movement in Indonesia. As the follow up of the empirical studies, an SSI-based teaching unit using an Indonesian context was developed and implemented. The first and second studies are respectively about the ISTs and the PSTs experience and views regarding SSI-based education. The challenges that were considered barriers for teachers to incorporate SSIs in their science teaching in class and potentials of SSI-based instruction in Indonesian school settings, particularly about the students’ and the teachers’ competencies that can be enhanced, as well as the students’ characters that can be developed through SSI-based education, were explored. In addition to that, topics potentially of value to incorporate SSI-based instruction according to teachers’ views were identified. Furthermore, the teachers’ intension to implement SSI-based science instruction in their teaching despite the potential challenges and focusing benefits of corresponding teaching practices was explored. The third study is a case study about the PSTs teaching experience in using daily life contexts when they teach in their teaching internship program. How the PSTs taught environmental pollution, which can be considered as highly related to SSIs, was investigated. Furthermore, whether or not the PSTs taught the topic in an SSI-based teaching fashion was explored. The fourth study is about the implementation of an SSI-based teaching unit using palm oil-based biodiesel in Indonesia. According to the first three studies, involving ISTs and PSTs, the teachers rarely teach under SSI framework. Moreover, at their teacher education program, PSTs never learned about the SSI-framework during their courses. The teachers acknowledged some challenges to conduct SSI-based instruction, such as students’ lack of competencies, teachers’ lack of experience and expertise in SSI-based teaching, the curriculum constrains, as well as time limitations. However, the teachers had positive views about the students’ competencies and characters that can be enhanced through SSI-based education. Despite all the challenges and potentials of SSI-based teaching in their eyes, the teachers would like to implement SSI-based instruction in their classes. The third study showed that SSI was not intentionally used in the PSTs lesson plans nor in the teaching practices although the PSTs considered that the topic of environmental pollution fulfilled the characteristic of SSIs. By the result and discussion of these three studies, it is suggested that science teaching based on SSIs should be more taught at the teacher education programs, either in the pedagogical or the science courses. By giving the science teacher candidates experience on how science class is undertaken in the light of SSI-based instruction, it is hoped that it will increase their knowledge, experience, and expertise about SSI-based education and serves as their reference how to integrate SSI-based teaching when they will become a teacher in the future. For that reason, an SSI-based teaching unit derived from the palm oil-based issue in Indonesia was developed and implemented to the PSTs at a chemistry unit. The student teachers clearly gave positive feedback about the teaching unit. As another SSI, the thesis suggest the topic of genetically modified rice.