Intuitions about science, technology, and nature: A fruitful approach to understand judgments about socio-scientific issues

Abstract

According to the social-intuitionist model of moral judgment, this chapter highlights the significance of intuitive beliefs concerning socio-scientific issues. Using the example of genetic engineering, an approach from the field of biology education is presented as a theoretical frame for a better understanding of intuitive judgments. Teaching about socio-scientific issues in chemistry education is not only an issue if ethically relevant topics are explicit subjects of teaching but also if contents are ethically connoted and are imparted into science classes in a supposedly unbiased manner. The social-intuitionist model of moral judgment allows a deeper understanding of decision-making processes, which are based on culturally embedded beliefs about a science-based world or the meaning of nature. Those ethically relevant and almost implicit beliefs are here called "everyday myths." Such beliefs are part of the worldview and self-understanding of students and have effects on their decision making about socio-scientific issues. Knowledge about the intuitive dimension of ethical judgments should support a sensitive attitude of teachers toward students and toward the cultural range of science.