The State of the Art of Socioscientific Issues in the Arab World

Socioscientific issues (SSI) have gained significant worldwide attention and support in recent years, leading to various arguments for their use of SSI in science education in the Arab World. This chapter explores SSI research across different Arab countries. In Lebanon, SSI has been utilized as a platform for the teaching of two pillars of scientific literacy: nature of science (NOS) and argumentation. In Jordan, SSI was used as a context to facilitate the comprehension of environmental problems, and to promote decision-making. In Egypt, SSI was used as a vehicle for promoting STEAM programs while in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), SSI was used to prepare students to understand the relation between science, technology, and society (STS), promote decision making, informal reasoning, and critical analysis of science related issues in addition to integration of SSI in the textbooks. In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), SSI was used to develop scientific reasoning abilities, critical thinking skills, moral and ethical reasoning, and decision-making skills. It was also used to advance students’ understanding of NOS and scientific literacy. This chapter aims to (1) describe SSI research in the Arab world, (2) discuss the research results in relation to the different themes addressed in the research, and (3) analyze the implications for science teaching and learning.