Investigation of Pre-Service Science Teachers’ Awareness of Socio-Scientific Issues Appearing in Newspapers

The purpose of this study was to determine pre-service science teachers’ awareness of socio-scientific issues that are considered to be the pre-requisite of scientific literacy. The sample of this qualitative research is comprised of 15 third-year (junior) pre-service science teachers (13 females and 2 males) who were selected using purposive sampling method. This research consists of two phases. In the first phase researchers followed four newspapers with the highest circulations rate for a month in 2016 and, specific articles those are related to the science were selected after the evaluation of 120 newspaper articles. The second phase was an application process carried out based on the active involvement of pre-service science teachers. This application process included determining the science concepts in the newspapers, the reasons of labelling an issue as socio-scientific, and determining the socio-scientific concepts in these newspapers. The findings of this study revealed that most of the pre-service science teachers were able to determine the science-related concepts in the newspaper articles as well as majority of them were able to determine the headings regarded as socio-scientific issues. Pre-service science teachers explained some of their reasons, as issues being open to dispute, being up-to-date, and leading individuals to experience dilemmas for their selection of socio-scientific issues