3. Results
3.1. Teachers’ Experiences Regarding SSI-Based Teaching
The number of teachers who had never heard or read about SSI-based teaching and learning exceeded (53.3%) those who had previously heard about it (46.6%). At every level of teaching experience, more teachers were unfamiliar with the SSIs as an educational concept than those who had already heard of it, except the group of teachers with less than five years of teaching experience (
Figure 1).
The teachers with previous knowledge about SSI-based teaching received their information from various sources. The two most common sources were colleagues and articles in teacher journals (each had a value of 41.9%). Other sources included workshops, the Internet, book chapters, and papers from teacher conferences (
Figure 2).
Personal experience with implementing SSIs in science education also varied greatly. Almost 30% of the teachers had never implemented SSIs in their classes. Even among those who had previously heard of the approach, some had not implemented it. There were, however, some teachers who stated that they never heard about SSI-based education at the theoretical level but have used a corresponding approach in their classes. Altogether, a total of 64.6% of the participants never or rarely implemented SSIs in their teaching, only 25.3% did so occasionally, and a mere 10.1% stated that they did so regularly. None of the teachers stated they used SSI-based teaching for the whole curriculum (
Figure 3).
A lack of implementation among those teachers who rarely/never implemented SSI-based learning in their classes might be generally caused by the focus of their teaching. For these teachers the science content seems to be the basic goal, not discussing any associated controversies, as stated in the following interview excerpt: “I have used the food issue to talk about food ingredients, such as nutrients and food additives, whether the food is healthy or not. I ask the student to check the food ingredients on the label and to identify the function and risk of the ingredients. The discussion was mostly about the ingredients rather than any societal discussion. I also address the risk of additives, such as preservatives, coloring agents, sweeteners, etc., but we do not discuss any associated controversies.”
3.2. Teachers’ Perceptions Regarding SSI-Based Science Education
The teachers suggested several ideas for competencies that might be developed through SSI-based learning, both for learners and teachers. These suggestions could be categorized into the areas of communication, problem-solving, critical thinking, scientific inquiry skills, social and environmental awareness skills, literacy, higher-order thinking skills, creativity, and collaboration skills (
Table 2). A few competencies were mentioned by single teachers and included open-mindedness and curiosity.
Aspects of communication and problem-solving are the skills most often suggested by teachers to be developed when SSI-based teaching is implemented, followed by critical thinking and scientific inquiry. One teacher stated in the interviews that students are very engaged in the SSI discussions: “I used the issue about transgender in the topic of human growth and development…. The pro and cons within the society about transgender were very interesting for the students that their discussion was very intense, many students express their opinions and positions regarding the issue.” Concerning problem solving and critical thinking another teacher explained in the interview: “For example, on the topic of environmental pollution, in this case, water pollution, as our school is located near a river polluted by waste such as plastic, I ask the students to propose ideas how to solve the problem. Some students thought of making the plastic waste into fuel… I also ask the students to reflect their daily activities which might contribute to river pollution, so that they can critically think of their habits and enhance their awareness to protect their environment.”
Aside from considering the skills that can be enhanced by learning about SSIs among the students, the teachers also considered some competencies that can potentially help the teachers themselves. These competencies tended to fall into seven categories: designing innovative contextual learning, developing teaching skills, acquiring interdisciplinary knowledge, utilizing varied learning sources, making authentic assessments, motivating students, and developing critical thinking skills (
Table 3).
Nearly half of the teachers considered that SSI-based teaching might enhance the teachers’ ability in designing innovative contextual teaching, as also suggested in the interviews: “Teachers would be more skillful in designing contextual learning based on specific problems which occur in their environment.” The teachers also suggest that SSI-based science education can enhance their teaching skills: “Teachers will be better at managing the class so that within the limited amount of time provided, the class can cover the material suggested by the curriculum. They can also educate their students to take care of and think about their societal problems.”
Most teachers expressed positive views on the contribution of SSI-based learning on student character formation (
Figure 4).
The aspects of character formation, which may be potentially supported by SSI-based learning, could be placed in seven categories. Environmental and social awareness were the two primary character traits prominently perceived as fruitful by the teachers for SSI-based learning. Other character aspects frequently mentioned were open-mindedness/respectfulness, responsibility, collaboration skills, critical thinking, positive attitudes, and consideration of values (
Table 4).
The aspect of students’ character formation that most of the teachers addressed, also in the interviews, to be potentially developed was environmental and social awareness: “The students might be more aware about the issues in their environment or society, issues which are neglected.” The second often mentioned aspect of character formation was open-mindedness: “Students have different opinions and are respectful to diversity. They might become open to different perspectives. Learners can communicate their opinions politely, based on evidence.”
Out of 33 science topics found in the Indonesian junior secondary school curriculum, some topics were seen as having potential for implementing SSI-based learning. Eleven potential topics were each suggested by more than 40% of the teachers. These topics commonly deal with the environment or technology (
Table 5).
The teachers, however, also described several challenges hindering them from implementing SSI-based education effectively. The responses were grouped into five categories, namely: lack of students’ competencies, lack of teacher expertise, content in the curriculum, lack of facilities, and lack of time (
Table 6).
Lack of students’ competencies is the most often suggested challenge in implementing SSI-based instruction, as also mentioned in the interviews: “Most of my students are lower achieving students. It is difficult to engage my students in an active discussion. I have to make sure that they understand the science concept before involving them in the discussion about a societal issue like that.” Another point the teachers stressed about the students’ reading abilities: “I think this approach requires the students to read a lot of sources in order to understand the problem, but my students are not motivated and very poor in reading comprehension.”
Despite all the possible challenges to implementing SSI-based instruction, most of the teachers were interested in implementing SSIs in their teaching practice, at least to some extent (
Figure 5).
From the interview, we also can see that many teachers were interested in implementing SSI-based teaching because they see a chance to enhance the relevance of science education, as well as to promote students competencies: “I think I am interested to use SSIs in class because these issues are very relevant to students’ lives. They can challenge students to be creative in solving problems from within the society.” Some teachers, however, were indifferent because this would be a new approach to teaching science to them. When asked in the interview about why they were interested in only some extent, one said: “I think it is an interesting approach but I am not pretty sure how to use the SSIs in my class.” This quote supports the factor that hinders teachers to implement SSI-based learning, that is the teachers’ lack of knowledge, experience, and expertise regarding the SSI-approach.
4. Discussion
It is likely that SSI-based pedagogies are known by only about half of the junior secondary science teachers from this sample in Indonesia. Even among teachers familiar with SSI-based education, most of them do not regularly apply them in their lessons. SSIs have become a focal point of science teaching since the end of the 1990s [
28], but they are probably better known in countries outside Indonesia. SSIs have represented an emerging field in science education research in Western countries over the last decade. Researchers have provided many theoretical and conceptual justifications for including SSI-based pedagogies to achieve scientific literacy as the goal of science education [
7] and developed corresponding didactic models [
14]. Nevertheless, the application of SSI-based approaches is still limited even in Western countries because the primary goal of science instruction is still seen by many teachers as delivering science facts and theories [
7]. In Indonesia, the SSI-based approach seems to have not been developed extensively and has had only limited influence on curriculum reform in science education [
12].
The participants in the study acknowledged many competencies and skills that can be developed using SSI-based teaching and learning. This was believed to be true for both students and teachers. Using the framework outlined by Holbrook and Rannikmae, who proposed three domains of science education for enhancing scientific literacy [
29], the skills suggested by the teachers covered the individual, societal, and nature of science domains. The individual domain includes aspects such as communication, critical thinking, literacy (in terms of reading competence), creativity, and higher-order thinking skills. Skills such as solving societal problems, social and environmental awareness, scientific literacy (in terms of applying knowledge for socio-scientific decision-making), interlinking science–technology–society, and collaboration could be linked to the societal domain. The nature of the science domain was also referred to in terms of scientific inquiry.
The teachers acknowledged the relatedness of SSIs to their students’ lives and to society. They viewed SSIs as a way to help students, including lower-achieving students, become more involved in discussions, which can increase communication skills. SSI-based learning has previously been described in the literature as an enhancement of students’ communication skills, such as the ability to relate ideas, to take stances, to be prepared for discussion, and to communicate a position [
30]. It has also been suggested that SSIs can enhance levels of personal engagement and foster a greater sense of relevance among students [
1,
31]. There is hope that such teaching approaches can have a positive impact on students’ interest because learners tend to be curious about SSIs in order to gain more knowledge about a given subject [
32]. The teachers also recognized potential for enhancing collaborative and problem-solving skills. SSI-based approaches were suggested as a way to offer students further chances to engage in higher-order cognitive practices, such as argumentation, reasoning, and decision-making [
33]. In this study, only a few of the teachers acknowledged the latter aspects, perhaps due to their limited personal experience. In the literature, it has been previously suggested that teachers should teach and actively practice higher-order thinking skills with their students if they want to develop them in their learners [
34].
The participants also recognized several teacher competencies that might be developed, if educators use SSIs. Most of these abilities revolved around professional pedagogical skills, such as designing contextualized learning, utilizing and developing various learning materials, developing teaching skills, making authentic assessments, and motivating students. Teachers saw SSI-based instruction as a potential tool for designing contextual learning by integrating daily life contexts into lessons. They also stated that SSIs can be used to develop learning materials that are context-based and closely related to their students’ personal needs. The teachers in this study suggested that SSIs can offer chances for more authentic teaching practices and assessments. This not only addresses the area of the assessment of knowledge but also includes the development of attitudes and other skills, including higher-order thinking skills. SSI-based teaching requires a broader, more highly integrated knowledge base borrowed from various disciplines. If teachers want their students to become critical thinkers, they need to practice such skills themselves.
The participants also believed that SSI-based education can positively contribute to character formation. Societal and environmental awareness are the aspects of character formation that were given the highest priority in this study. This falls in line with the literature, suggesting that ethical awareness and sensitivity can indeed be enhanced by SSI-based education [
35,
36,
37]. Further aspects of character formation concerned open-mindedness and respect (see also [
19,
35]).
Constructing and delivering SSI-based education is a challenging undertaking by its very nature [
38]. In our study, many teachers were skeptical of their students’ abilities to participate in SSI-based discussions. They consider SSI-based education to be a big challenge. They suggested an overall lack of student competency in areas such as cognitive and reading skills. Many teachers listed this and other factors quite frequently when being asked about potential hinderances to SSI implementation. Analyzing PISA test results, Cromley found a high level of correlation between students’ reading comprehension skills and their science proficiency [
39]. PISA results since 2003 have shown that Indonesian students’ performance in reading and science has consistently been below the average calculated for Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries [
40,
41,
42,
43,
44]. This means that implementing complex SSIs in Indonesian science education may be more difficult than in other countries.
Some participants also addressed personal limitations in their own knowledge, experience, and expertise when it comes to SSI-based teaching. They felt that they do not have sufficient time and expertise in creating material for innovative instruction, as previously also reported by Fogleman et al. [
45]. Another challenge suggested by many of the teachers was the lack of facilities to support SSI-based instruction, including Internet access. The students are not allowed to use a mobile phone during the lesson so that the students cannot access the Internet. Presley et al. or Marks and Eilks [
14,
33] recommend using authentic media offerings to establish a classroom connection to the real world. They argued that teachers and students can use digital communication technology in order to access many forms of media such as newspaper content, videos, Internet pages, etc. Moreover, students’ personal perception of the relevance of science education might be enhanced by the use of authentic media [
46]. This is, however, difficult if access to digital media and the Internet in schools is limited.
The teachers in this study also viewed the nature of science content in the curriculum as a challenging factor when trying to implement SSI-based instruction. Most of the teachers felt obliged to concentrate on delivering condensed science content in order to prepare their students for final exams. This is in line with the findings reported by Subiantoro [
12]. Moreover, in the teachers’ opinion, SSI-approaches require inordinately large quantities of time, both in lesson preparation and in carrying out lesson plans. One of the teachers, who had worked with transgender issues in the topic of human growth, stated that the students were very excited about the controversies regarding the societal aspects of this issue. She, however, also reported that their intense discussions had to be limited in class due to time constraints. Similar perception regarding limited time was also acknowledged by Korean science teachers [
23].
Although the teachers perceived SSI-based education positively and saw its potential for character formation, the participants did not exhibit correspondingly high levels of implementation of SSI-based education in their classrooms. It is suggested that teachers must be given more resources and be provided with thorough support in order to overcome any difficulties encountered in implementing SSI-based learning [
38,
47]. Such support needs to be provided by policy makers, curriculum developers, and science education research so that teachers can overcome any problems they face in implementing SSI-based pedagogies at the classroom level. This should result in developing SSI-based teaching and learning materials and corresponding media. The development could start with advantageous topics such as environmental pollution, food biotechnology, or global warming, which easily lend themselves to SSI-focused efforts.