Exploring students’ certainty of assumptions and evidence evaluation about socioscientific issue systems

Abstract

An important goal of science instruction is to promote students’ understanding and evaluation of social issues related to science. Our study used the socioscientific issues (SSI) context of water conservation to explore evidence evaluation and certainty of assumptions among undergraduate students (n = 217) enrolled in a science literacy course at a research-intensive university. We investigated students’ ability to use evidence and certainty of assumption about water conservation, as well as the predictability of these traits based on personal characteristics, including personal epistemic beliefs, emotion, open-mindedness, metacognition, and stakeholder identity. We also studied students’ ability to provide reasons for their certainty of assumptions. We found that most students were fairly certain in their assumptions and identified themselves as strong stakeholders in water conservation. However, most students could not provide reasons for their assumptions. The application of regression models indicated that students’ stakeholder identity, open-mindedness, and regulation of cognition were significant predictors of their certainty of assumption, while emotions, epistemic beliefs, and knowledge of cognition were non-significant predictors. We also found that students’ evidence use was predicted only by their knowledge of cognition, while other personal characteristics were non-predictors. Pedagogical implications and future research avenues are discussed in the papers.

Department(s)

School of Health Sciences

Document Type

Article

DOI

10.1080/09500693.2026.2614364

Keywords

evidence evaluation, metacognition, Socioscientific issues

Publication Date

1-1-2026

Journal Title

International Journal of Science Education

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