Integrating socio-scientific issues to enhance the bioethical decision-making skills of high school students

Abstract

Scientific literacy has been focused on the construction of students' knowledge to use appropriate and meaningful concepts, critically think, and make balanced, well-informed decisions relevant to their lives. This study presents the effects of integrating socio-scientific issues to enhance the bioethical decision-making skills of biology students. Using a quasi-experimental research design, results of the independent and related samples t-test on the pre- and posttest mean scores of 72 students significantly revealed that integrating socio-scientific issues in biology lessons are useful to enhance their bioethical decision-making skills. Moreover, as socio-scientific issues were integrated in their lessons, students' classroom interactions and argumentations improved significantly and enabled them to give a positive, more elaborate, and in-depth responses with a wider range of explanations.