Review of "Using Issues-Based Science in the Classroom" by S. Williams and J. Howarth

Williams, S. and Howarth, J., (2009) Using Issues-Based Science in the Classroom: Challenging students to think critically about the role of science in society. The Science Teacher, 76(7), 24-29.

Review

The article begins with a discussion of various issues of the day, such as H1N1, paper or plastic bags and the environment, and genetically modified crops, which serve as an introduction to the involvement of students in science via such issues. The article then goes on to discuss and define the various characteristics of issues-based science education and how it varies the emphasis of science as an isolated, information based subject studied in isolation and assessed via multiple choice tests to a field of study based on understanding the context of science as a collaboration which seeks to connect science to everyday issues in via open ended questions and “authentic” assessment. A variety of issues are then illustrated with pertinent questions, tips are given for engaging in the activities of an issues based science education, such as giving students a chance to make recommendations after they have done the appropriate research and drawing on student’s knowledge and interests to generate questions to study. The article then discusses how the method addresses the new National Science Education Standards and the relevance of doing so in a global society. The article then goes on to discuss how to go about planning an issues-based method of instruction and gives many helpful ideas that help explain the advantages, disadvantage and needs of such a curriculum in a short but well written series of paragraphs and charts. The article concludes with an analysis of when it is appropriate to engage in this type of learning and suggests how many types of students and their learning methods could be accommodated by this method before concluding with a call to engage students in critical thinking about science and the need for it in the modern world.

The article was well written, organized and helpful. It provided a clear overview of the advantages, and disadvantage of teaching issues based science. In fact the strongest feature of the article was its’ critical analysis of itself. By including the advantages-developing critical thought, involvement with the community, and student interest and motivation with real world issues, and disadvantage-extra time, energy, materials, resources required and the more advanced mental stage of development required for use of this process, formal operations, the article not only addressed the reason for using the technique, the limitations of the technique and included suggestions for how and when to implement the technique as part of an over-arching plan that address both the student’s needs and limited resources and time of the teacher. The charts and graphs are particularly useful in this regard and by providing a rubric for use and a continuum of methods the article succeeds in empowering the teacher with tools they can use in their classrooms. The only weak point of the article was that it should have been more precise in how issues-based science could be used to address the needs of students at different developmental levels, it did admit that such an method of instruction works best with students who have acquired the critical thinking skills necessary for the approach but was weak in delineating how to address those students how had not reach such an intellectual level or how the method could be used to aid them in this regards, a small point but an important one as this is the one issue that is perhaps the most difficult for teachers to address in order to use this style of instruction effectively. The articles in the bibliography also seem tailored to allow the reader, presumably the teacher or administrator, more tools to reasonably access this style of teaching in a manner consistent with practical use and teaching constraints.