Using narratives to introduce Computer Science related SSIs in lower secondary education

Abstract

In recent decades, society and computer science have become increasingly interlinked. This results in helpful technological developments, but also in simultaneously scientific and societal issues, often accompanied by debate or controversy. These are called socio-scientific issues (SSIs) (Kolstø, 2001; Sadler & Zeidler, 2005a). Being able to form opinions and make decisions about these issues is one of the goals of scientific literacy and citizenship education (Kolstø, 2001; Sadler, 2004b; Sadler, 2011; SLO, 2021b). However, there is a lack of learning materials on SSIs involving computer science and technology (Knippels & van Harskamp, 2018; Vakil, 2020). Engagement and initial opinion-forming about SSIs can be achieved using narratives (Boerwinkel, 2012). The aim of this study is to design and evaluate the potential of narratives to introduce computer technology-related SSIs to lower secondary school students. Six narratives were developed and tested through eleven semi-structured, individual interviews and three semi-structured, focus group interviews with 9th grade students at pre-university level. Of these six narratives, two narratives were most successful in evoking values, emotions, reasoning and questions in students. These could be selected for further research and development into learning materials to implement computer science SSIs into education.