Premium
Students' reasoning and decision making about a socioscientific issue: A cross‐context comparison
Author(s) -
Lee Yeung Chung,
Grace Marcus
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
science education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.209
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1098-237X
pISSN - 0036-8326
DOI - 10.1002/sce.21021
Subject(s) - metacognition , context (archaeology) , psychology , scope (computer science) , science education , moral reasoning , philosophy of science , mathematics education , epistemology , pedagogy , social psychology , cognition , computer science , paleontology , philosophy , neuroscience , biology , programming language
Abstract It has been argued that decision making about socioscientific issue (SSIs) necessitates informal reasoning, which involves multiperspective thinking and moral judgment. This study extends the scope of the literature concerning students' reasoning on SSIs to a cross‐contextual study by comparing decisions made on avian flu by 12–13‐year‐old Chinese students in two different contextual settings using a prescribed decision‐making framework. The findings reveal differences between students in the two settings with respect to their reasoning perspectives, evidence perceived to be useful to gather, decision‐making criteria, and postactivity decisions. When coupled with cross‐contextual exchange, the prescribed decision‐making framework was found to have an impact on both multiperspective reasoning and metacognitive reflection on the multifaceted nature of decision making. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed 96: 787–807, 2012