Poster #22 - Quality Decision Making About Socioscientific Issues (SSIs): Developing Frameworks to Describe Students' Use of Evidence

• In Event: 18.060 - MTCC Poster Session Two
  In Poster Session: 18.060-3 - Research on Science Teaching and Learning Poster Session 1

Abstract

A unique post-secondary, multidisciplinary, large enrollment class uses a decision-making tool (DMT) that encourages students to critically analyze various sources of information, evaluate multiple solutions, and make quality decisions. This preliminary study explores how students utilize technical/scientific information to support their decision-making over an SSI when using the DMT. We developed coding frameworks that describe students’ level of proficiency in 1) providing reasoning about the outcome of an option for solving an SSI, and 2) applying information to support their reasoning about the outcome of an option for solving an SSI. We found that students do not often provide reasoning that clarifies assumptions about potential outcomes for solving an SSI, and many do not use evidence when supporting their decisions.

Authors

• P. Citlally Jimenez, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

• Jenny M Dauer, University of Nebraska - Lincoln