Can students navigate the socio-scientific dilemma? a large-scale study of decision-making proficiency and its influencing factors

Despite growing advocacy for integrating Socioscientific Issues (SSI) into science classrooms, a critical question persists: Are we equipping students to navigate morally complex, scientifically ambiguous dilemmas? This quantitative study examined Socioscientific Decision-Making (SSDM) proficiency within a specific task context among 1692 senior secondary students using a chemistry-based SSDM Proficiency Assessment (SSDMPA) and three-dimensional rubric assessing key processes: understanding SSI (Understand); evidence-based decisions (Decide); and developing solutions (Create). Descriptive analysis indicated students were generally capable of engaging with the SSI task. Inferential analysis revealed distinct patterns across the three dimensions. For Understand, students in well-resourced schools (S1) outperformed those in less-resourced schools (S2 and S3). For Decide and Create, significant main effects of school level and gender, as well as their interaction, were observed. Female students outperformed males in S1 and S2 schools on both dimensions. For Decide, males in S3 outperformed those in S1 and S2. For Create, males in S1 and S3 outperformed those in S2, while females in S1 outperformed their S2 counterparts. These findings point to a nuanced relationship between science content knowledge and situated SSDM task performance. While science knowledge facilitates understanding the presented SSI stimulus, its contribution to enhancing informed decision-making and creative solution development within this task context appears unexpectedly constrained.