Students' reasoning processes in making decisions about an authentic, local socio-scientific issue: bat conservation
Students' reasoning processes in making decisions about an authentic, local socio-scientific issue: bat conservation
Education for scientific literacy entails the development of scientific knowledge and the ability to apply this knowledge and value judgments to decisions about real-life issues. This paper reports an attempt to involve secondary level biology students in making decisions about an authentic socio-scientific issue - that of bat conservation - through a classroom activity. A decision making framework adapted from the literature was designed to help students to tackle the issue from multiple perspectives with due consideration given to relevant scientific knowledge, rational argumentation, and the values underlying the possible options. An evaluation of the results showed that there were considerable changes in the students’ decisions before and after the activity, thus reflecting a change in values from an anthropocentric viewpoint to an eclectic perspective that emphasizes both utilitarian and biocentric values.
conservation, biodiversity, decision making, scientific literacy
156-165
Lee, Yeung Chung
32a1c35a-5f48-44a9-84bd-878f68d12135
Grace, Marcus
bb019e62-4134-4f74-9e2c-d235a6f89b97
September 2010
Lee, Yeung Chung
32a1c35a-5f48-44a9-84bd-878f68d12135
Grace, Marcus
bb019e62-4134-4f74-9e2c-d235a6f89b97
Lee, Yeung Chung and Grace, Marcus
(2010)
Students' reasoning processes in making decisions about an authentic, local socio-scientific issue: bat conservation.
Journal of Biological Education, 44 (4), .
(doi:10.1080/00219266.2010.9656216).
Abstract
Education for scientific literacy entails the development of scientific knowledge and the ability to apply this knowledge and value judgments to decisions about real-life issues. This paper reports an attempt to involve secondary level biology students in making decisions about an authentic socio-scientific issue - that of bat conservation - through a classroom activity. A decision making framework adapted from the literature was designed to help students to tackle the issue from multiple perspectives with due consideration given to relevant scientific knowledge, rational argumentation, and the values underlying the possible options. An evaluation of the results showed that there were considerable changes in the students’ decisions before and after the activity, thus reflecting a change in values from an anthropocentric viewpoint to an eclectic perspective that emphasizes both utilitarian and biocentric values.
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Bat_paperManuscript_Lee_YC_and_Grace_M_(revised)4.doc
- Author's Original
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Bat_paper_Figure_1_(revised)3.doc
- Author's Original
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Published date: September 2010
Keywords:
conservation, biodiversity, decision making, scientific literacy
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Local EPrints ID: 157995
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/157995
ISSN: 0021-9266
PURE UUID: e06d1f94-782e-407f-b337-cb44125154ab
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Date deposited: 14 Jun 2010 11:14
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 02:36
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Author:
Yeung Chung Lee
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