Reflecting socio-scientific issues for science education coming from the case of curriculum development on doping in chemistry education

Abstract

Socio-scientific issue-based science education has been suggested for promoting general educational skills development in science classes. However, there is a lack of operationalized criteria, which can be used to reflect upon societal issues to whether turning them into issues for science classroom instruction. This paper describes a case study based on Participatory Action Research in science education. A lesson plan based on the socio-scientific issue of doping in professional sports and in fitness studios was designed and cyclically refined by a group of teachers and science education researchers. Along this case, together with previous studies of SSI-oriented curriculum development, the action research group started reflecting on the question of operational criteria for reflecting and carrying out socio-scientific issues in science classroom situations. This paper discusses the structure of the above-mentioned lesson plan. Experience gained during lesson plan development and testing will be reported upon. Suggestions stemming from teacher group discussions about the criteria chosen for reflecting socio-scientific issues for classroom use will also be presented. © 2013.by iSER, International Society of Educational Research.