Indonesian Prospective Teachers' Scientific Habits of Mind: A Cross-Grade Study in the Context of Local and Global Socio-Scientific Issues

Overview & Synopsis

This study explored Indonesian prospective teachers' views on the adapted (including global socio-scientific issues) and revisited (including local socio-scientific issues) versions of the scientific habits of mind (SHOM) scale and compared their SHOM levels concerning teacher education programs and grades. The sample of the study consisted of 1298 Indonesian prospective teachers drawn from departments of chemistry education, biology education, science education, elementary teacher education, and mathematics education. The adapted and revisited versions of SHOM scale were used to collect data. The result showed that the locality of socio-scientific issues (SSI), grade, and teacher education program somewhat influenced the Indonesian prospective teachers' SHOM levels. Also, their familiarity with local SSI acted as a cornerstone to make a decision about SSI via SHOM. This study suggests that teacher education programs should be enriched with undergraduate courses (e.g., integrating SSI into SHOM, measuring SSI with SHOM, ethnoscience through SSI and SHOM) to stimulate the Indonesian prospective teachers' SHOM levels via SSI.