<p>Science educators face significant challenges in preparing learners with the skills and knowledge necessary for 21st-century functional scientific literacy. This stems from high expectations of students and a growing demand for them to apply their learning to complex issues with political, social, environmental, and economic dimensions. The siloing of content through traditional curricular methods in science education, which restrict learners’ exposure to connections across entrenched fields of specialization, hampers educators in their ability to teach this level of complexity across disciplines. Our study aims to engage college students in the complex issue of climate change, pivoting away from deficit frameworks of teaching and learning toward a holistic model of transformational learning we call <i>socioscientific perspectives</i> (SSP). We demonstrate how to structure a course on climate change for postsecondary students using a multidimensional, interdisciplinary, and transpersonal approach. SSP is rooted in practices of engagement, moral sensitivity, and shifts in viewpoint that provide educational opportunities for students to examine some of the socioecological challenges we face through critical reflection and perspectival insight. Our findings indicate how our undergraduate participants were supported in their transformational learning through a progressive pedagogical approach, along with the implications this study holds for the field of science education. Science educators who teach interdisciplinary topics can benefit from this research as it illustrates a responsible issue-based curriculum where students exercise epistemic authority on socioscientific issues.</p>

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Transformational Learning for Complex Socioscientific Issues

  • Eric Nolan,
  • Dana Zeidler

摘要

Science educators face significant challenges in preparing learners with the skills and knowledge necessary for 21st-century functional scientific literacy. This stems from high expectations of students and a growing demand for them to apply their learning to complex issues with political, social, environmental, and economic dimensions. The siloing of content through traditional curricular methods in science education, which restrict learners’ exposure to connections across entrenched fields of specialization, hampers educators in their ability to teach this level of complexity across disciplines. Our study aims to engage college students in the complex issue of climate change, pivoting away from deficit frameworks of teaching and learning toward a holistic model of transformational learning we call socioscientific perspectives (SSP). We demonstrate how to structure a course on climate change for postsecondary students using a multidimensional, interdisciplinary, and transpersonal approach. SSP is rooted in practices of engagement, moral sensitivity, and shifts in viewpoint that provide educational opportunities for students to examine some of the socioecological challenges we face through critical reflection and perspectival insight. Our findings indicate how our undergraduate participants were supported in their transformational learning through a progressive pedagogical approach, along with the implications this study holds for the field of science education. Science educators who teach interdisciplinary topics can benefit from this research as it illustrates a responsible issue-based curriculum where students exercise epistemic authority on socioscientific issues.