Thai pre-service science teachers’ struggles in using Socio-scientific Issues (SSIs) during practicum

The findings show that some PSTs used noncontroversial science issues in their classrooms rather than SSIs. SSIs are considered topics with no clearly defined single outcome or answer and about which reasonable people might be expected to disagree (Lewis, 2003). When considering the scientific concepts they tried to link with SSIs, health and behavior were most often mentioned. Supporting this idea, Sadler, Barab, and Scott (2007) noted that teachers could use SSIs as a context for real-life situations to allow students to learn specific science content knowledge. Among those who used SSIs in their lessons, they intentionally brought SSIs into them but focused on them only in the introductory part. Moreover, the student role was mainly limited to discussion. These practices are different from SSI-based teaching, where students have a chance to collect and analyze scientific data, engage in higher-order practices such as argumentation, reasoning, decision-making, or position taking (Presley et al., 2013). In the present study, PSTs tried to use various media to present SSIs in their lessons, and they found that using video related to SSIs seemed to attract their students’ interests. Similarly, Klosterman et al. (2012) found that many teachers tried to use mass media to facilitate students’ exploration of SSIs, but their use of frameworks aligned with SSI-based teaching was limited.

Regarding their struggles using SSIs in the classroom, the majority of PSTs felt a lack of confidence using SSIs in their teaching. This was also found by Pedretti et al. (2007), who determined that in the early years of teaching many teachers did not feel confident about teaching related to controversial issues and were reluctant to do so. The PSTs in the present study also pointed out that the characteristics of some content were difficult to link to SSIs. Similarly, Forbes and Davis’s study (2008) that found PSTs generally have limited SSI knowledge and, as a result, tend to teach units that focus on the content they are familiar with. For learning media, PSTs used video clips as the main type of media for bringing SSIs into science classrooms, but they used them to provide factual information rather than to promote students’ inquiry process. In addition, the PSTs in this study mentioned that students’ basic knowledge about SSIs was inadequate. Many reports have pointed out the difficulties students have in making connections between science content and SSI discussion (Sadler, 2004). Sadler and Donnelly (2006) have shown that students use very little of the science knowledge learned in class when they discuss an issue in interviews. One reason comes from the fact that SSIs are often related to frontier science for which there is much uncertainty and no consensus within the science community (Aikenhead, 2006).

Regarding the need for professional development in SSI-based teaching, most PSTs wanted to know how to use SSI issues when teaching. The reason for their need derives from their lack of knowledge about this teaching approach. Similarly, Levinson and Turner (2001) stated that some teachers lacked pedagogical knowledge and had little understanding of frameworks for ethical thinking. Therefore, the findings in this study require science educators and institutions for teacher education to prepare Thai PSTs more on how to use SSIs in their science teaching.

The findings show that most PSTs did not have knowledge about SSI-based teaching. Consequently, they hardly ever used SSI-based teaching in their classrooms. Thus, the researchers suggest that the teacher preparation program should provide clear content and activities related to SSI-based teaching in some courses. In addition, the program should provide learning resources that are easy to assess to obtain more knowledge about SSI-based teaching and to obtain direct suggestions from experts about SSI-based teaching. Because the PSTs were in the last year of their teacher preparation program at the time of the study, they should have already developed their understanding and practices of SSI-based teaching in a correct way. They pointed out their preference for a professional development program, including its ease of access. Thus, a future study should focus on the development of a professional development program to enhance PSTs understanding and practice of SSI-based teaching and to examine the effectiveness of that program in terms of its ease of access for PSTs.