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Patterns of College Students' Moral Engagement with Socioscientific Issues  

Lee, Hyun-Ju (Ewha Womans University)
Choi, Kyung-Hee (Ewha Womans University)
Chang, Hyun-Sook (Bangwon Middle School)
Publication Information
Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education / v.26, no.5, 2006 , pp. 646-659 More about this Journal
Abstract
This study explored, through informal, conversation-type interviews, how college students relate to science in general as well as to two specific socioscientific issues: human cloning and animal dissection/experimentation. How students "relate" includes what kinds of attitudes they have toward science and socioscientific issues, how seriously they consider and want to engage with these issues, and how they express their opinions or make a decision. The sample (16 college students) was heterogeneous in terms of academic background, ethnicity, and school year. Each interview lasted for about one hour with audiotaping. Results indicated that most participants immediately brought in their own values and feelings in implicit or explicit ways. However, the depth of their personal engagements varied. Most of the participants either did not take socioscientific issues seriously or merely quoted their own values in resignation, seemingly not able to deal with the issues and overwhelmed by many other aspects of the issues. By reflecting on the participants' reactions, the discussion addresses some of the larger issues for current secondary science teaching that involve raising responsible democratic citizens.
Keywords
socioscientific issues; decision making; college students;
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