Socio-Scientific Issues as a Vehicle to Promote Soft Skills and Environmental Awareness

Susilawati Susilawati,Nurfina Aznam,Irwanto Irwanto,Paidi Paidi

doi:10.12973/eu-jer.10.1.161

Abstract

<p style="text-align:justify">This research aims to investigate the effect of socio-scientific issues (SSI) based instruction on preservice science teachers’ soft skills and environmental awareness. By applying cluster random sampling, 83 preservice science teachers (PSTs) were selected from the Department of Science Education at a university in Indonesia. The participants were divided into two groups which comprised the experimental group who were taught using SSI-based instruction, while the control group received direct instruction. The quasi-experimental study was carried out through a pre- and posttest control group design. Data was gathered quantitatively using soft skills and environmental awareness questionnaires. The soft skills questionnaire comprised six sub-skills questions: communication, collaboration, problem-solving, creativity, teamwork, and social interaction. The environmental awareness questionnaire contained questions about the PSTs’ attitudes, behavior, and willingness to act. These sub-skills were developed based on literature studies and reviews of previous studies. Face validity was conducted by the experts, and Cronbach’s alpha coefficients of 0.84 (for soft skills) and 0.86 (for environmental awareness) were obtained. The data were analyzed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. The result showed that SSI-based instruction had a significant effect on improving preservice science teachers’ soft skills and environmental awareness. After being taught using SSI-based instruction, all the sub-skills of the soft skills of the experimental group had increased compared to before. A similar trend was also found in their scores for environmental awareness. All the components of environmental awareness, after lecturing using SSI-based instruction, showed a significant increase compared to before. These results support the claim that SSI-based instruction fosters soft skills and promotes environmental awareness.</p>

Highlights

In the current era of the industrial revolution, education needs a new pattern for preparing human resources in accordance with the needs of employers
The control group, after being taught by direct instruction, showed an increase in their soft skills scores which were relatively lower than the experimental group, as the average only increased from 16.21 to 20.18
Differing from the soft skills scores, the environmental awareness scores for the control group were found to be slightly higher than the score of the experimental group at the beginning of the class

Summary

Introduction

In the current era of the industrial revolution, education needs a new pattern for preparing human resources in accordance with the needs of employers This requires educators to be literate in these various needs. Hart Research Associates (2015) stated that soft skills are the main abilities that graduates must have to succeed in the world of work. This finding is in line with Greenberg and Nilssen (2015) who concluded that educational institutions have more persistence in producing graduates who are ready to work toads should be more persistent in work-ready graduates. This statement was made by Robbles (2012) who stated that soft skills were needed by graduate teachers, but in practice, they graduated without the necessary soft skills

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Discussion

Conclusion