SOCIO-SCIENTIFIC REASONING SKILLS: BRIDGING SCIENCE AND SOCIETY (Invited Presentation)

Socio-scientific issues (SSI) (climate change, GMOs, vaccines, etc...) are sophisticated challenges that provide a bridge between science and society and can offer an exciting venue for science learning. To develop an informed stance on an SSI, one must have advanced Socio-scientific reasoning (SSR) skills. SSR is critical for supporting students in making decisions on SSI that have been deemed as controversial to the general public. This presentation will introduce the salient features of SSR, the theoretical origins of these features/constructs, and to instruments utilized in the measurement of SSR. Specific attention will be given to the role that SSR frameworks can play in Geoscience Education Research. This attention will be further extended through a study conducted to measure SSR skills in students with a focus on living shorelines.