Supporting opinion-forming of secondary biology students on SynBio-related SSIs
Year: 2015
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Scientific literacy has become an internationally claimed desired outcome of science education, which should include the ability to negotiate and make informed decisions about socioscientific issues (SSIs). A new developing field within the biological sciences that will most likely evoke SSIs is synthetic biology (SynBio). The developments within SynBio may lead to a variety of new applications but also holds risks and raises ethical questions. Therefore, education should prepare students to form an opinion and make informed decisions about SynBio-related SSIs. The opinion-forming and decision-making process needs to be informed beside scientific knowledgeby self-knowledge and societal knowledge. For this, students need to be aware of their own values and those of others. One way to introduce SynBio-related SSIs is with the use of techno-moral vignettes. The aim of this study was to investigate if techno-moral vignette-related learning and teaching activities are adequate to support the opinion-forming process on SynBio-related SSIs in the classroom, by making students more aware of the values that are of personal importance and those of others. To achieve this goal, a design based research approach was used to develop two lessons that incorporated the vignette ‘Reinventing the dodo’ and reframing activities to make students more aware of the values that they hold. The developed learning and teaching activities were tested in one class of pre-university level. Data was extracted from the students’ worksheets, interviews, class observations and audio recordings. The results showed that the vignette did evoke several emotions and questions, and that the reframing activities made students look at the dilemma from different perspectives. Students became more aware of their values and those of others but it cannot be concluded if this was the result of the reframing activities. Key-words: Design based research; Socioscientific issues; Techno-moral vignettes; Opinion-forming; Synthetic biology; Framing and reframing.
Author: G.C. Ripken
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1185550157