Socio-scientific issues - a way to improve students´interest and learning?

According to many documents there is a strong need to renew science education. One way could be to work with socio scientific issues (SSI). This paper reports about both students and teachers' experiences and learning when working with socioscientific issues in science education at senior level (age 13-16). The approach is multidimensional as factors that influence cognition as well as motivation and the forming of attitudes are complex. Results suggest SSI work forms are more important than personal factors for explaining outcomes. Relevant issues, autonomy and functioning group work seem to be important aspects of successful SSI work together with structure provided by the teacher, and information that challenges previous knowledge. In general, SSI seems to be most efficient for students, who believe they learn from presenting and discussing their knowledge, focus on ‘the large picture’, acknowledges own responsibility for learning, finds school science personally relevant and are self-efficacious. It seems that the outcomes from SSI work are much in the hands of the teacher. Thus, working with SSI could be considered as an appropriate activity for all students. However, educators should continue to look for ways to promote development of students’ attitudes and epistemological beliefs.