Sabina Eggert

Students’ Socioscientific Reasoning and Decision-making on Energy-related Issues—Development of a measurement instrument

The concept of energy is one key component of science education curricula worldwide. While it is still being taught in many science classrooms from a mainly conceptual knowledge perspective, the need to frame the concept of energy as a socioscientific issue and implement it in the context of citizenship education and education for sustainable development, is getting more and more explicit. As we will be faced with limited fossil fuels and the consequences of global climate change in the future, students have to be supported in becoming literate citizens who are able to reach informed energy-related decisions. In this article, we focus on students’ reasoning and decision-making processes about socioscientific energy-related issues. In more detail, we developed a paper-and-pencil measurement instrument to assess secondary school students’ competencies in this domain. The functioning of the measurement instrument was analysed with a sample of 850 students from grades 6, 8, 10 and 12 using item response theory. Findings show that the measurement instrument functions in terms of reliability and validity. Concerning student ability, elaborate reasoning and decision-making was characterised by the use of trade-offs and the ability to weigh arguments and to reflect on the structure of reasoning and decision-making processes. The developed measurement instrument provides a complement for existing test instruments on conceptual knowledge about the concept of energy. It aims to contribute to a change in teaching about energy, especially in physics education in the sense of education for sustainable development.

Entwicklung eines Testinstruments zur Messung von Schülerkompetenzen

Wie gelange ich von der Idee, einen Kompetenztest zu entwickeln, zu einem reliablen und validen Messinstrument? Welche fachdidaktischen bzw. padagogisch-psychologischen Theorien lege ich zugrunde? Wie sollte die Entwicklung von Testaufgaben fur ein Instrument zur Kompetenzmessung erfolgen? Wodurch sind eine gelungene Kompetenzmodellierung und Messinstrumententwicklung gekennzeichnet? Zu diesen Fragen gibt der folgende Beitrag – illustriert am Beispiel der Messung von Bewertungskompetenz beim Bearbeiten komplexer Umweltproblemsituationen – Antworten.

Modeling and Fostering Decision-Making Competencies Regarding Challenging Issues of Sustainable Development

A model of decision-making competence for secondary school students was developed and validated within the project “Decision-Making Competence Regarding Challenging Issues of Sustainable Development”. The model rests on three pillars: Education for Sustainable Development, decision-making theory, and educational competence modeling. Three dimensions of decision-making competence were identified: (1) “Understanding values and norms” in the context of Sustainable Development (SD), (2) “Developing solutions”, and (3) “Evaluating solutions” for SD problems. The two last-mentioned dimensions stem from decision-making theory, and were adapted to educational purposes. Related measurement instruments were developed according to Wilson’s developmental cycle, using a between-item-multidimensionality approach. The test development procedures and results are described for the dimension “Developing solutions”. Moreover, we started with an experimental validation of a theory of socioscientific decision making. More specifically, we used training-induced strategies to realize experimental variation to differentiate empirically between two decision-making dimensions and problem solving. The results of a pilot study addressing the validation of “Developing solutions” and “Evaluating solutions”, vis-a-vis problem solving, are reported and discussed. We close with considerations of future research, to realign the boundaries of our research program.

Evaluating Sustainable Development Solutions Quantitatively: Competence Modelling for GCE and ESD.

To comprehensively address global environmental challenges such as biodiversity loss, citizens need an understanding of the socio-economic fundamentals of human behaviour in relation to natural resources. We argue that Global Citizenship Education and Education for Sustainable Development provide a core set of socio-economic competencies that can be applied to tackle such challenges. As a central concern of this article, we report on the development of a competence model and its use in an empirical study. The study analyses the ability of German students (n = 268: 232 pupils in senior secondary school and 36 student teachers) to evaluate solutions for real-world Sustainable Development challenges quantitatively. In doing so, we investigate a theoretically described competence dimension, that is, ‘Evaluating and Reflecting Solutions Quantitatively-Economically’. A Rasch partial credit model indicates that ‘Evaluating and Reflecting Solutions Quantitatively-Economically’ can be modelled as a one-dimensional competence. Grade level, general educational performance and high performance in subjects addressing Education for Sustainable Development positively affect ‘Evaluating and Reflecting Solutions Quantitatively-Economically’ scores. Although applying basic economic insights in a quantitative manner to Sustainable Development challenges is within the mathematical skill set of most students, even older or better-performing students find it difficult to do so. Thus, these findings underscore the need for economic competencies to be incorporated in Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship Education.