Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBİTAK)

The SOBID Project is supported by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBİTAK) under the Scientific and Technological Research Projects Funding Program, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Group (ARDEB-SOBAG 3501), under the title "Design and Implementation of a Climate Change Teaching Module Based on a Socioscientific Issues Approach" (Project No: 123K129).

3. Project Content

Project Title: Design and Implementation of a Climate Change Teaching Module Based on a Socioscientific Issues Approach

Our Aim: In order to minimize the risks arising from the impacts of climate change and to enable future generations to live in harmony with climate change, climate change education is being incorporated into the curricula of many countries, including Türkiye. One of the steps taken in Türkiye for this purpose is the course "Environmental Education and Climate Change", introduced as an elective in middle schools as of 2022. Recent research on climate change has shown that, unlike the approaches used so far, climate change education should be socially and ethically rather than cognitively focused, and should be an interdisciplinary process that makes effective use of technology and establishes a direct connection with students' personal lives (Monroe et al., 2019; Rousell et al., 2020). In addition, the greatest barriers to effective climate change education have been reported to be teachers' unfamiliarity with the concept of climate science, the neglect of the social, cultural and ethical dimensions of climate change, teachers' reservations about discussing these dimensions in the classroom, and the lack of instructional materials (Foss & Ko, 2019; Hestness et al., 2014; Jorgenson et al., 2019; Monroe et al., 2019; Oversby, 2015). Based on these needs, the main objective of this project is to develop teachers' pedagogy in teaching climate change as a socioscientific issue (SSI) using an SSI-based instructional approach, and to examine the change in students' climate literacy as a result of these teachers' classroom practices. In this project, climate change education will be designed and implemented based on the SSI-based instructional approach, as it is an approach capable of responding to the needs mentioned. The SSI-based approach proposes designing instruction in the context of complex, open-ended issues without a single answer, such as climate change, and raising future generations as individuals who can reason and propose solutions regarding these complex issues (Sadler & Zeidler, 2005). Within this scope, a professional development program developed as part of the project will be implemented with a group of middle school science teachers working in Istanbul. During the professional development program, a climate change teaching module will be developed together with the teachers, and classroom implementations of the module will be carried out. At the end of these implementations, the development of students' climate literacy will be measured. Throughout the iterative processes of the project, teachers will be provided with continuous feedback. The two main outputs of the project are the Climate Change Professional Development Program and the Climate Change Teaching Module; by monitoring the classroom implementations of the teaching module and measuring students' climate literacy, the project aims to make an original contribution to the literature. In addition, the professional development of teachers who teach the "Environmental Education and Climate Change" course, which was introduced in Türkiye only this year (2022-2023 academic year), will be supported with regard to climate change education. Through these outputs, the project is expected to make significant contributions in terms of academic and societal impact.

Project Phases:

● Analysis and Exploration

● Design and Construction

● Evaluation and Reflection

This website has been developed as the promotional, informational and online platform interface of the TÜBİTAK ARDEB 3501 research project numbered [SOBAG-123K129]. The project team is responsible for all published content, and the content in no way reflects the views of TÜBİTAK.