Trends in elementary preservice teachers’ lesson planning for socioscientific issues

Socioscientific issues (SSI) instruction has been shown to strengthen students’ critical thinking, problem solving, and scientific discourse skills. However, opportunities to engage with SSI remain limited in elementary classrooms across the United States (U.S.). This gap is driven, in part, by U.S. elementary teachers’ reliance on scripted curricula and a lack of access to high-quality, developmentally appropriate SSI resources. Because preservice preparation plays a central role in shaping beginning teachers’ instructional decision-making, teacher education programmes represent a critical site for developing the skills needed to design rigorous, student-centered SSI lessons. This study explores how elementary preservice teachers incorporated elements of SSI (scientific content, moral and ethical considerations, stakeholder perspectives, and assessment) into lesson plans developed within an elementary science methods course. By analyzing trends across these lesson plans, the study provides insight into how elementary preservice teachers conceptualise and design SSI-based instruction and identifies areas where additional pedagogical support may be needed. Findings highlight the promise of preservice preparation for cultivating teachers’ capacity to integrate real-world scientific issues into elementary classrooms and underscore the importance of continued research on how this early preparation has potential to influence teachers’ long-term instructional practices.