Genetics in socio scientific issues: Measuring rebuttal abilities in scientific argumentation

Abstract

Genetics is one of the most important concepts in understanding Biology. Even though it is now widely applied in various socio-scientific issues, often, it also causes debate in the society, especially in the learning process. Students' argumentation in addressing socio-scientific issues that arise can be used as an assessment to see how students think in supporting or denying their claims. Utilize the case study on 21 high school students in one of West Java public school; the study aims to see students' rebuttal ability and the genetic concept they use to support their denial. The results showed that 34.92% students giving rebuttals, with 14.29% of them provide conceptual support that relevant to genetics, while another 47.62% students provide a general Biology conceptual support, 14.29% students provide a misconception of genetics, and 23.81% using an irrelevant concept. It shows that it is important to do the learning that supports the growth of rebuttal ability in the learning process so that students' critical thinking ability becomes better, especially in understanding the genetic concepts in school and social life.