Courses in gender communication are designed to enable students to examine the role of gender and gender identity in everyday communication. To aid them to understand gender communication, they should be exposed to at least three foundational areas and supporting content. Sex and gender differences, the social construction of gender, and…

This study investigates the effectiveness of two pedagogical strategies--deliberation and debate--in fostering productive political discussions among high school students, with a focus on overcoming affective polarization. Paying attention to students' comfort, engagement, and willingness to participate, this study employs a mixed-method approach…

Bioethics is an important aspect of understanding the relationship between science and society, but studies have not yet examined undergraduate student experiences and comfort in bioethics courses. In this study, we investigated undergraduate bioethics students' support of and comfort when learning three controversial bioethics topics: gene…

Implementing curriculum standards in high school social studies education often challenges educators in shaping their instructional decisions and students' learning experiences. North Carolina social studies educators have faced challenges in balancing the requirements of curriculum standards with the need to teach sensitive topics such as race,…

In April 2021, Idaho became the first state to pass a policy restricting teachers' discussion of race- or gender-related topics. Over the next two years, 17 more states followed suit and passed similar restrictions through state legislatures, state boards of education, state attorneys general, and executive orders. Using nationally representative…

The purpose of the research was to determine the opinions of middle school students about the inclusion of controversial issues in social studies course. In this mixed methods study, an explanatory design was used, and the participants involved middle school students studying in Kirsehir, Osmaniye, and Diyarbakir provinces of Turkey during the…

Teaching about sexualities and the LGBTQ+ movement today is full of pitfalls and possibilities. While growing acceptance of at least some segments of the LGBTQ+ community means students are more open to talking about these issues than ever before, two serious barriers remain: (1) The rise of Trump has empowered antagonistic students to utilize the…

By using autobiographical narrative inquiry (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000) and poetry (Leggo, 1998), we share the story of a Muslim Canadian female graduate student, as experienced by the student and her graduate supervisor. We unpack an email expressing concern, written by an Indigenous male student about the work of the Muslim female student…

What are controversial issues? Who decides whether something is controversial, and how does it affect how a subject is taught whether a topic is presented as either controversial or not so? Although there has long been a lively debate within educational research on what criteria should be used to determine whether or not an issue is controversial,…

This study aimed to describe the decision-making style regarding the socioscientific issue (SSI) of pre-service Biology teachers in four regions of Indonesia as a guide in designing active, varied, and creative learning involving students in each learning session. Data were collected using a questionnaire to 514 participants and analyzed…

This paper presents findings from a study of high school students (N = 165) engaged in discussions of controversial political issues within Close Up Washington's civic education program. We report findings from pre- and post surveys to investigate how the group's views about the issues were affected by the discussion strategy they experienced. We…

This study aims to determine the role of worldview perspective on science students' decision-making process by a socio-scientific issue-based instruction through an integrated Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education. Understanding the decision-making process in complex themed learning is one of the most important…

America's rank among the lowest of developed countries in evolution acceptance rates is due, at least in part, to religious and political opposition. The negative correlations among religiosity, political ideology, and evolution acceptance in the United States have been documented repeatedly, and comfort with evolution varies by region with…

While offshoring represents a polarizing topic, limited pedagogical research helps us understand how to address diverse student offshoring views in the classroom. The present study fills this gap with a survey of undergraduate business students, revealing how resentment toward offshoring differs by student political views and global exposure.…

The aim of this study was to determine middle school 7th grade students' opinions on controversial issues. In the research, screening model and quantitative research method has been used. The sample of the study consists of 7th graders from 5 public schools located on the center of Demirci district of Manisa province. The 5-point Likert-type…