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Changes in Primary Students’ Informal Reasoning During an Environment-Related Curriculum on Socio-scientific Issues

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Abstract

Recent studies emphasize the importance of learning science while considering multiple perspectives on environment, society, economy, and technology, which allows learners to relate what they do in the classroom to the world beyond. In this study, 68 12-year-old primary students from 1 Malaysian school were followed while they engaged in a science curriculum centered around 8 environment-related socio-scientific issues during a unit on the interaction among living things. The analysis shows that the informal reasoning skills of the students improved significantly. Progressive implementation of SSI activities encouraged students to use evidence-based decision-making, improving reasoning modes, and advancing reasoning levels.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Universiti Sains Malaysia’s Research University Individual (RUI) Grant [1001/PGURU/816279].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Educational Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800, USM, Penang, Malaysia

    Mageswary Karpudewan

  2. Applied Cognitive Science, University of Victoria, MacLaurin Building A557, Victoria, BC, Canada

    Wolff-Michael Roth

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  1. Mageswary Karpudewan
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  2. Wolff-Michael Roth
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Correspondence to Mageswary Karpudewan.

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Karpudewan, M., Roth, WM. Changes in Primary Students’ Informal Reasoning During an Environment-Related Curriculum on Socio-scientific Issues. Int J of Sci and Math Educ 16, 401–419 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10763-016-9787-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10763-016-9787-x

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