Understanding Factors related to Undergraduate Student Decision-making about a Complex Socio-scientific Issue: Mountain Lion Management

Ashley R Alred; Jenny Marie Dauer

doi:10.29333/ejmste/113757

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Ashley R Alred ¹ , Jenny Marie Dauer ¹ ^*

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¹ University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA^* Corresponding Author

Abstract

We outline an instructional strategy for supporting students’ science literacy skills using a structured decision-making tool in an interdisciplinary undergraduate course. Instructional tools support basing complex socioscientific issues decisions on a reasoned analysis of tradeoffs among multiple conflicting values rather than heuristics, such as social norms. We explored the factors related to students’ decision-making about mountain lion management by examining if students’ value orientations, identity, or knowledge predicted their management decisions before, during, and after engaging in structured decision-making where they performed a tradeoffs analysis. We found that student decision-making may align more closely to students’ value orientations and identity at the beginning of the course, suggesting that by the end of the course, students were less likely to make decisions centered in social norms and simplified single-value heuristics. A structured decision-making tool can be an effective way to support students’ examination of value tradeoffs when solving complex socioscientific issues.

Keywords

decision-making
postsecondary
science literacy
socioscientific issues
values

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, Volume 16, Issue 2, February 2020, Article No: em1821

https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/113757

Publication date: 09 Dec 2019

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How to cite this article

APA

Alred, A. R., & Dauer, J. M. (2020). Understanding Factors related to Undergraduate Student Decision-making about a Complex Socio-scientific Issue: Mountain Lion Management. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 16(2), em1821. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/113757

Vancouver

Alred AR, Dauer JM. Understanding Factors related to Undergraduate Student Decision-making about a Complex Socio-scientific Issue: Mountain Lion Management. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2020;16(2):em1821. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/113757

AMA

Alred AR, Dauer JM. Understanding Factors related to Undergraduate Student Decision-making about a Complex Socio-scientific Issue: Mountain Lion Management. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2020;16(2), em1821. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/113757

Chicago

Alred, Ashley R, and Jenny Marie Dauer. "Understanding Factors related to Undergraduate Student Decision-making about a Complex Socio-scientific Issue: Mountain Lion Management". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education 2020 16 no. 2 (2020): em1821. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/113757

Harvard

Alred, A. R., and Dauer, J. M. (2020). Understanding Factors related to Undergraduate Student Decision-making about a Complex Socio-scientific Issue: Mountain Lion Management. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 16(2), em1821. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/113757

MLA

Alred, Ashley R et al. "Understanding Factors related to Undergraduate Student Decision-making about a Complex Socio-scientific Issue: Mountain Lion Management". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, vol. 16, no. 2, 2020, em1821. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/113757