Effects of an Interdisciplinary Program on Students’ Reasoning with Socioscientific Issues and Perceptions of Their Learning Experiences

Abstract

Preparing students to take informed positions on complex problems through critical evaluation is a primary goal of university education (Association of American Colleges and Universities, 2007; Baxter Magolda, 1999) and an important aspect of scientific literacy (Sadler & Zeidler, 2009; Roberts, 2007). In approaching contem-porary problems, the ability to understand and position oneself in interdisciplinary issues is essential (Mansilla & Duraising, 2007; Klein, 1990). This is especially true where the study of biology meets contemporary global problems. For example, to understand the nature and impacts of disease, it is essential to examine psycho-logical and socioeconomic aspects as well as biology and pathology. These goals of university education are highly consistent with the framework of socioscientific issues (SSI), which seeks to integrate science concepts and their social significance, facilitate reasoning with complex problems, and promote content learning (Sadler, 2009; Zeidler, Sadler, Applebaum, & Callahan, 2009). This study focuses on a 4-year university program designed to integrate biology with social aspects of the human, scaffolding students to develop their reasoning related to complex issues and advocate for their own committed positions. The primary goal for this research was to compare reasoning and perceptions of stu-dents who participated in this program and those who chose a traditional biology major. We intended to determine whether students who experienced a sustained approach to teaching through SSI differed in their reasoning or incorporation of different perspectives into their thinking about science issues with social signifi-cance. We also aimed to discover common themes in students' perceptions of their experiences with SSI and overall outcomes of their majors. A second goal of the study was to illustrate how the pedagogy was enacted to meet program goals. Many factors contribute to the complex learning environment of an SSI unit or course. In the SSI classroom context, variables contributing to, © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011 90 J.L. Eastwood et al. student outcomes cannot be easily isolated to reveal their direct contributions to student outcomes. Particular aspects of instruction can influence students' knowl-edge and perceptions to different degrees and complicate findings. Describing the curriculum and detailing how instruction is carried out helps to explain the nuances or anomalies in results. Where other research reports discuss goals or general strate-gies of SSI instruction, we sought to provide a more in-depth description of the context to create a more complete picture for interpreting results. We also envi-sioned the study as an opportunity to address a current gap in the literature, showing how SSI is enacted in a college level environment. A third goal was to apply an SSI framework to an existing program developed using resources from outside the science education literature. The program under study was developed using literature on development in the college years and inter-disciplinary education. It sought to challenge students to explore different perspec-tives and develop positions to which they are committed. Professors used an interdisciplinary, case-based approach to help students learn to reason and take positions on controversial issues with both scientific and social implications. Although the goals and pedagogical strategies employed were consistent with SSI, the term " socioscientific issues " was unfamiliar to the program faculty. Through our collaboration, a science education researcher and the program director, a biology professor and well-established scholar in biology teaching and learning, hoped to connect congruent concepts from our different perspectives. A fourth goal was to provide an opportunity to open the SSI discussion to include reasoning with socioscientific issues for students of science and health professions. Most of the SSI literature has focused on science education for citizen-ship. Although it is important to help all students understand the science behind issues, reason effectively when called upon to vote, and advocate for their positions, different approaches may be needed for students entering fields like healthcare and environmental science. Their decisions will affect patients' outcomes and policy on important issues, so ability to reason across disciplines and understand different perspectives is essential for these students. For science majors, content-heavy required courses and busy programs of study may leave little room for SSI instruc-tion, so it is important to illustrate how SSI may be effectively integrated into col-lege science curricula.