Promoting Socioscientific Issue-based Science Education – Finding Opportunities in Assessment

There have been attempts to integrate assessment with teaching to enhance learning. In this study, we have attempted to use assessment as a strategy to foster socioscientific issue (SSI)-based learning. The available research suggests that teachers have a positive attitude towards the incorporation of SSI-based discussions in their classrooms simultaneously stating challenges like limited time, rigid syllabus, exam pressure, unavailability of related resource material, and intellectual demand on the part of the teacher as well as students, etc. We argue that ‘guided assessment’ as a pro-learning assessment approach could be used to promote SSI-based learning in the face of challenges. This paper describes and explores the efficacy of the ‘guided assessment’ task included in an SSI-based learning module developed on issues related to groundwater. This module was trialled with thirty secondary science students belonging to the lower socioeconomic background. The data related to the ‘guided assessment’ task was analyzed qualitatively using socioscientific sustainability reasoning framework developed by Morin et al. (2014) and we found that the ‘guided assessment’ strategy facilitated students through questioning and provided opportunities to reflect on themes crucial to decision-making. The findings also revealed the impact of peer interactions on decision-making skills of students. Based on this intervention, we propose that teachers can use such an assessment strategy to make their SSI-based instruction more efficient and effective.