Teachers’ perspectives on teaching of Socio-scientific Issues (SSIs) in Indian Science Classrooms

This thesis explores the teachers’ perspectives on the teaching of Socio-Scientific Issues (SSIs) and the factors that influence their teaching. SSIs are those contemporary issues that are deep rooted in sciences, have an impact on society, involve moral and ethical reasoning and are controversial in nature. The study has been conducted in the context of Indian science classrooms, with fourteen upper primary and secondary stage science teachers from five schools. Three of the five selected schools are Green Schools, which have an explicit focus on the teaching of environmental SSIs. The data was collected using semi-structured interviews and classroom observation sessions, with a focus on following two questions. (1) What are the methods and strategies used by the teachers for teaching SSIs? (2) What are the factors that influence the teaching of SSIs?

The results showed that the majority of teachers supported the teaching of SSIs and for some this links to specific SSIs in their lives and local communities in their Indian context, particularly pollution and environmental threats. However, a significant level of variation was witnessed in their actual classroom practices for teaching SSIs. The various profiles of teachers, classified based on their beliefs and classroom practices, have been discussed. Among the methods used by the teachers for teaching SSIs, the two most common method for teaching SSIs were discussions and lecture method. Four different forms of discussions and two different forms of lecture method have been delineated based on the strategies used by the teachers for teaching SSIs. Results indicated that teachers’ beliefs, school leadership and assessment system are the most influential factors for SSIs teaching. Implications and the major findings of this research have been discussed which contribute towards the acute lack of empirical studies over the teaching of SSIs in Indian schools.