The effect of Socio-Scientific Issues (SSI) in teaching science: A meta-analysis study

Abstract

This study aims to summarize the research findings on using socio-scientific issues (SSI) in teaching Science. In recent years, teaching based on socio-scientific issues (SSI) is utilized in science education to promote scientific literacy. A meta-analysis is conducted by calculating the effect size of the 12 studies associated with the SSI implementation in teaching Science published in different regions. The overall effect size was large (1.08), and found that SSI affects teaching science. The effect sizes determined by the categorical variables such as scientific literacy aspects showed that SSI had a large effect on content learning (1.15), competence (0.89), decision-making (1.14), and reasoning (0.81); and year level showed that SSI had a large effect on junior high school (1.43) and senior high school (0.96) while medium effect on college (0.55). Lastly, a significant effect was shown on the moderating effect, such as the class size (p = 0.035), while no significant effect was shown on the duration of implementation (p = 0.487). Considering the effect of SSI in teaching Science, this study could help teachers and educational researchers in science and technology education.