PROBLEM SOLVING ON

SOCIOSCIENTIFIC ISSUES TO
ENHANCE SCIENTIFIC LITERACY

SRI RAHAYU

Professor of Science Education

Chemistry Department, Faculty of Mathematics & Science
UNIVERSITAS NEGERI MALANG

sri.rahayu.fmipa@um.ac.id

Lecture for EASE Summerschool 2-6 August 2022

MALANG CITY

INDONESIA

UNIVERSITAS NEGERI MALANG

 01 Introduction

02 Scientific Literacy
The nature of problem
03
(Socio-scientific Issues)

04 Problem Solving
Lecture Content
Instruction & Assessment
05
for Problem Solving
 INTRODUCTION
HOTS & Scientific
Literacy
Preparing 21st century
learners: A major goal of science
Every aspect of education is focused education
on preparing citizen with 21st century
competences: HOTS & scientific
literacy
Change of 21st century:
Bring good impact & bad impacts
Charachteristics of
21st century society
• globalisation
• diffusion of technology
• a growing knowledge
economy

21st century
 A Challenge For Preparing The 21st Century Learners:
Teachers should not only capable in using innovative instructional strategy that is in
line with contemporary theory/philosophy of learning, but they should also be able to
assess the learners using higher order thinking skills (HOTS) instrument
HOWEVER:

From research literature it is found that:

• Teaching strategies that engage students’ HOTS are rare. One possible reason could be less
expectation to put on teachers about how they should teach HOTS and the assessment do not promote
higher-order thinking (Saifer, 2018).
• Teachers' understanding of HOTS is still relatively limited (Schulz & FitzPatrick, 2016).
• They still have difficulty in developing instruments to measure students' higher order thinking skills
(McNeill et al., 2012; Schulz & FitzPatrick, 2014). Classroom science assessments generally consist
of asking students to recall information (Lederman and Neiss, 2000; Lane & Stone, 2006).
• Moreover, both primary and secondary teachers’ responses to a survey claim that they less assess
HOTS. Another fact shows that although teachers believe that they are assessing HOTS, but they are
not.
Bookhart (2010) divides higher order thinking definitions into
three categories: (1) those that define higher-order thinking in
terms of transfer, (2) those that define it in terms of critical
thinking, and (3) those that define it in terms of problem
solving.

Problem
HOTS In terms of
Solving
 80 J. Sjöström and I. Eilks

Different Orientation of Scientific Literacy

Democracy and
justice; critical
sustainability

usefulness of
Scientific scientific knowledge
in life and society
Literacy

Development of scientific
understanding

Sjöström and Eilks, 2020

Fig. 4.2 Three levels of humanized science education
 Physics Literacy

SCIENTIFIC
LITERACY
Chemical Literacy

Biology Literacy

Nature of
Science
(NOS)

Graber model of Scientific literacy

Chemical Literacy
A primary goal of chemistry education is to prepare chemically
literate students who can actively take part in addressing the
growing challenges affecting our society, as well as to reduce
the shortage in participation and interest of young people in
science and engineering (e.g see Bøe et al, 2011).

Thus, all reform movements in chemistry education advocate

the preparation of chemical literacy including all skills and
capabilities needed.

It is still often found that the practice of learning science in

various countries ignores the social dimension of science
FACTS
education and the encouragement to develop students' skills
needed to participate actively in society (Hofstein, Eilks &
Bybee, 2011).
Chemically literate person should
understand:
1. General Scientific Ideas: (i.e. chemists
conduct scientific inquiry)
2. Characteristics of Chemistry:
• explains phenomena - macroscopic,
submicroscopic and symbolic
representations
• investigates the dynamics of processes
& reactions and the energy changes
during a chemical reaction;
• aims to understand and explain life in
terms of chemical structures and
processes of living systems;
• use a specific language.
3. Chemistry in Context:
• understand the importance of chemical knowledge in
explaining everyday phenomena and relationship
between chemistry innovations and sociological
processes;
• use their understandings of chemistry in their daily life,
in decision-making, and in participating in a social
debate regarding chemistry-related issues.
4. High-Order Learning Skills:
• able to raise a question,
• searching information,
• analyze the advantages and disadvantages associated
with a position in any debate
5. Affective Aspects (e.g. curiosity, leadership, social &
cultural awareness)

Scientifically literate person will have sound understanding of

science content and able to solve complex problems happened in
their daily lives. For that, she/he must have necessary skills,
understand nature of science and show affective aspects.
 The nature of Problem (Socio-scientific Issues)
• Socio-scientific Issues (SSI) has proven to be a major impetus in the promotion of
scientific literacy within the science education community over the last two
decades.
• SSI use science topics purposively and require students to engage in dialogue,
discussion, and debate.
• SSI/problem is usually controversial but has additional elements that require
reasoning, morals or evaluate ethical issues in the process of making decisions in
an effort to solve the problem.
• The issue is personally meaningful and interesting to students and requires
evidence-based reasoning and use context to understand the scientific information
presented.
(Sadler, 2004a; Zeidler, 2003).

Characteristics of SSI are:

a. Controversial
b. Complex
c. Ill-structured
d. Involves scientific knowledge, social, economy, politics & ethics/moral
Examples of Socioscientific Issues Related
Chemistry Derived from High School Curriculum

Socioscientific Scientific Context Chemistry Content

Issues and Concepts

Alcohol Medical benefit Reaction rate

Monosodium Medical benefit Hydrolysis
Glutamat (MSG)

Natrium Benzoat Food preservatives Buffer

Asidification Asidification of Acid base
Mediteranine Sea

Acid Rain Acid Rain in Local Area Acid, base,

netralisation
Diklorodifeniltri Epidemic of Disease Polarity of Chemical
kloroetana (DDT) Bonds
 INSTRUCTIONAL
STRATEGY USING SOCIO-
SCIENTIFIC ISSUES
 EXAMPLES OF INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGY WITH SSI

LEARNING CYCLE 5E
(LC 5E) • Scientific/Chemi
cal Literacy
• Argumentation
skill
INQUIRY BASED • Scientific
ARGUMENT-DRIVEN
INSTRUCTION INQUIRY (ADI)
Explanation skill
• Critical thinking
• Ill-structured
problem solving
PROCESS ORIENTED
Embedded as GUIDED INQUIRY
a context LEARNING (POGIL)

SOCIOSCIENTIFIC

S
ISSUES (SSI)

LLI
SK
 PROBLEM SOLVING
• Problem-solving is a complex activity that requires an integration of students’
content knowledge & process skills, such as analysis, decision-making, synthesis,
and critical thinking (Yuriev et al., 2017).
• The skills involve higher-order thinking skills.
• Problem-solving skills should be well taught and recognized within the learning
assessment scheme (Overton & Potter, 2011; Song, 2005).

WELL-STRUCTURED PROBLEM ILL-STRUCTURED PROBLEM

Well-structured problems are Ill-structured problems are complex

problems whose elements are clearly problems, pose a dilemma, the elements of
defined and can be solved with an the problem are not stated explicitly,
appropriate solution require additional information relevant to
(Jonassen, 1997; Sensibaugh et al., the problem, and can be solved with a
2017). variety of solutions from various points of
view (Choi & Lee, 2009; Ge & Land,
2003)

Socioscientific Issue
 EXAMPLE 14.2

WELL STRUCTURED Consider the reaction

PROBLEM 4NO2 (g) 1 O2 (g) ¡ 2N2O5 (g)

Suppose that, at a particular moment during the reaction, molecular oxygen is reacting
at the rate of 0.037 M/s. (a) At what rate is N2O5 being formed? (b) At what rate is
NO2 reacting?
Strategy To calculate the rate of formation of N2O5 and disappearance of NO2, we
need to express the rate of the reaction in terms of the stoichiometric coefficients as in
Example 14.1:
ILL-STRUCTURED 1 D[NO2 ] D[O2 ] 1 D[N2O5 ]
rate 5 2 52 5
4 Dt Dt 2 Dt
PROBLEMS We are given
D[O2 ]
Local SSI Concept Dt
5 20.037 M/s

where the minus sign shows that the concentration of O2 is decreasing with time.
liquid waste from Textile industry Concentration
Solution
(a) From the preceding rate expression, we have
Coal gasification and acid mine D[O2 ] 1 D[N2O5 ]
Neutralization 2 5
drainage Dt 2 Dt
Therefore,
Coral bleaching and ocean D[N2O5 ]
5 22(20.037 M/s) 5 0.074 M/s
acidification Dt
Equilibrium of (b) Here we have
ionization 1 D[NO2 ] D[O2 ]
Pros and cons of floating net cages 2
4 Dt
52
Dt
so
D[NO2 ]
Pros and cons of alkaline water Buffers Dt
5 4(20.037 M/s) 5 20.15 M/s
Textbook
Simi

Practice Exercise Consider the reaction

 Example: well-structured Example: ill-structured problem
problem
Counting mole of hydrogen gas from
Polution of drug waste industry contain
decomposition reaction of a number of paracetamol, asetilsalisilat acid, dan ibuprofen
(Broman et al., 2018)
H2O mole (Fortus et al., 2005)

Solution model Problem Representation

Problem Representation
Generating & selection of
solution

Construction of solution
Justification of Solution

Implementation of Monitoring &

solution Evaluation of solution
 ASSESSING ILL-
STRUCTURED PROBLEM
SOLVING
Ill-structured problem-solving models
EXAMPLE OF STAGES &
INDICATORS IN PROBLEM
SOLVING MODEL
STAGE INDICATOR
Defining the problem
Generate goals
Problem
Identify the factors causing the problem
Representation

Identify other relevant information

Generating and Selecting Selecting or developing a solution with explicit

Solutions explanation
Constructing an argument
Making Justifications
Providing the evidence
Evaluating the solution
Monitoring and Evaluating
Solutions Assessing alternative solutions
Steps in solving Ill-
Structured Problem
Steps Question Example of questions
& Question promts promts
Problem Elaboration 1. What is the essence of the problem?
representation Prompts 2. What are the factors that cause the problem?
3. How are these factors related?
4. What is people opinion related to this problem?
Developing a Elaboration 1. What are the consequences if the problem persists?
solution Prompts 2. What is the purpose of solving the problem?
3. What should be done to solve the problem?
Solution Elaboration 1. Why did you choose this solution?
justification Prompts 2. What are the reasons for choosing this solution?
3. What is the evidence to support the solution?
4. What is the impact of the solution?
Monitoring and Reflection 1. What are the possible pros and cons of this solution?
evaluation of Prompts 2. What are the alternative solutions that can be used to
solution overcome these problems?
3. What are the advantages of the main solution that you
provide compared to alternative solutions that may arise?
4. Have you identified all the factors causing the problem?
5. Have you considered all the perspectives of the parties
related to the problem?
Example of Multiple-choice test of ill-structured problem-solving using
socio-scientific issues

PT RUM stated that they had repaired the leaking pipes many times.
The leaks did not originate from the waste disposal pipe but from the
clean water source pipe that flows to the factory. However, the
observation results state that water from the leaking pipe is very
cloudy and has a pungent smell. On the other hand, PT Sritex
provides compensation every time there is a protest from the locals.
The compensation is used to build village bridges. Meanwhile, PT
Tyfoundex and PT Sari Warna Asli have not yet given any response.
In 2019, the Central Java government held a waste management
coordination meeting attended by textile industry representatives.
The results stated that the textile industry waste on the banks of the
Bengawan Solo River must meet quality standards. The government
gives each industry a period of 1 year to improve its waste treatment
system and imposes strict punishment on those who violate,
revocation of business licenses. It can affect the small-scale textile
industry which also dumps liquid waste into the Bengawan Solo
River, for example, the batik industry. Most of them stated the
limitation of infrastructure to treat the waste.
Items:
Stage of problem representation:
1. What is the main problem in the text?
(A) The locals’ protest about the impact of the textile industry liquid waste in Sukoharjo has yet to find an effective solution.
(B) Central Java government's decision regarding the obligation of each textile industry to improve its liquid waste treatment
system to meet the quality standards.
(C) The textile industry produces liquid waste with concentrations of chemical substances exceeding the quality standard and
pollutes the Bengawan Solo river.
(D) The development of the textile industry in Central Java is profitable economically, but the liquid waste produced contains
concentrations of sulfide ions that exceed the quality standard and pollutes the Bengawan Solo river.
(E) Other answers: ………………………………………………………………………..

Stage of generating and selecting solutions:

4. What is the best solution for the problem in the text?
(A) The government should provide WWTP (Wastewater Treatment Plant) for small-scale textile industries on the banks of the
Bengawan Solo River.
(B) Each textile industry should dilute the resulting liquid waste with a specific dilution factor according to the initial
concentration of sulfide ions.
(C) The government should provide a water treatment system for locals’ wells contaminated with textile industry liquid waste.
(D) The government should prohibit all textile industries from dumping liquid waste into the Bengawan Solo River and
provide strict punishment for those who violate it.
(E) Other answers: ………………………………………………………………………..
Stage of making justifications:
5. Which of the following statements is the most appropriate reason to support your selected solution in number 4?
(A) Textile industry liquid waste does not only contain sulfide ions. It also contains textile dyes that can pollute the environment.
Therefore, proper and specific systems are needed to process these chemicals.
(B) The treatment process of textile industry liquid waste is more difficult than dealing with the impacts. Sulfide ions and other
chemicals, such as textile dyes, require specific treatment and cost a lot needed.
(C) The amount of liquid waste is directly proportional to the level of river pollution. The more liquid waste, the higher the
concentration of accumulated sulfide ions.
(D) The volume of the solution is inversely proportional to the solution concentration. The concentration in units of g/L
represents grams of solute in 1 L of solution. The greater the volume of solvent added, the lower the solution concentration.
(E) Other answers: ………………………………………………………………………..

Stage of monitoring and evaluating solutions:

7. What is an alternative solution to solve the problem in the text?
(A) Precipitating sulfide ions in liquid waste with the addition of specific solutions, for example, FeCl2 solution that ionized to
produce Fe2+ and Cl– ions.
(B) The government should provide socialization to the small-scale textile industry regarding the proper processing and disposal
of liquid waste.
(C) There is no other alternative solution. Each problem only has an exact solution.
(D) Other answers: ………………………………………………………………………..
Explain your reasons why you chose this alternative solution.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
What is the main problem in this environment?
What is probably the cause of the problem?
What is the best solution for the problem
 THANK YOU
PROBLEM SOLVING ON SOCIOSCIENTIFIC ISSUES TO ENHANCE SCIENTIFIC LITERACY