Assessment of socio-scientific reasoning: Linking progressive aims of science education to the realities of modern education

Abstract

Questions of what science education should be about and how the teaching and learning of science ought to be improved often connect back to scientific literacy. Zeidler, Berkowitz, and Bennett (Chap. 7, this volume) challenge us to consider a broad and progressive vision for scientific literacy. In this chapter, I delve into one aspect of this expansive notion of scientific literacy: socio-scientific reasoning. This construct is presented as a conceptual tool for linking progressive aims of education with the political realities of modern schooling.