2018 Conference

Individual Paper Presentation

Contentious environmental issues (CEI) are an ideal topic of study in environmental education (EE) because they are a means to develop environmentally literate citizens with the awareness, knowledge, skills, attitudes, and willingness to resolve said issues. One approach to teaching CEI is through a socioscientific issues (SSI) framework. The SSI framework offers a sociocultural approach which considers the intersection of science, culture and character Instead of only providing a context for science content or simply pointing out ethical dilemmas, SSI instruction uses a well-designed theoretical framework to capitalize on the pedagogical power of controversial issues to stimulate emotional growth, as well as moral and ethical development. Students address content knowledge, nature of science, and reasoning while investigating contentious issues through discourse, research, and critical analysis of the problem. This process simulates both how scientific research is conducted and provides opportunities to develop the skills necessary to become a scientifically literate contributor to society.

This exploratory qualitative study implements a SSI pedagogical framework to answer the question, “How do postsecondary students’ dimensions of CEI engagement change after participating in a socioscientific issues-embedded environmental science course. A pre/post design was implemented with 45 undergraduate students who examined how wolves should be managed in Northern California. Students were assigned various perspectives from which to examine the issue and present their suggestions for wolf management plan to a group of their peers. Preliminary findings indicate changes in students’ perspective taking ability, understanding of the nature of science, and understanding of the relationship between nature, science and technology.