Arab Educational Information Network

The main aim of this thesis is to study the views of High School Science Teachers in Al Ain about the inclusion of Socio-Scientific Issues (SSIs) in the curriculum. The problem statement relies on addressing the gap in the literature when addressing the inclusion of SSIs especially in the UAE context. To address this gap, a survey was conducted amongst High School Science Teachers for a better understanding of their views. The study showed that Science Teachers (from the sample) agreed with the inclusion of SSIs into the curriculum. They also identified resources, teaching strategies and knowledge as the top three factors that facilitate the inclusion of SSIs into the curriculum. As for factors that impede inclusion, the science teachers identified teaching strategies for real classroom situations, maturity of students and the influence of SSIs on participation levels as the top three factors. It was also found that there was statistically significance differences between the views of the teachers based on their prior knowledge as measured by courses related to SSIs studied with regards to inclusion of SSIs into the curriculum and based on teachers who have undergone PD courses about SSIs against those who did not. There was a significance difference also between the views of the teachers that studied SSI courses or teachers that did not study SSI courses with regards to factors that facilitate inclusion of SSIs into the curriculum and the teachers who have undergone PD courses about SSIs and teachers who have not, (in favor of the former). There were also statistically significant differences between the views of teachers with regards to inclusion, factors that facilitate and impede the inclusion of SSIs into the curriculum based on their specializations (subject taught). (Author's abstract)