Open to the College of Education

 "Socio-scientific issues and model-based learning: Research on student learning and teacher practices"

 A growing research base has provided evidence of the positive potential of socio-scientific issues (SSI) based teaching and learning; however, key questions remain in terms of how learning opportunities related to SSI can support learner engagement in scientific practices. This work shares results from a series of studies that explore a new framework for SSI that incorporates an explicit focus on scientific modeling. The studies investigate issues associated with students’ learning and modeling competencies as well as the practices in which teachers engage as the enact SSI instruction.

 Troy Sadler, Ph.D., serves as a Professor and the Associate Dean of Research at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) School of Education. Sadler’s research focuses on how students negotiate complex socio-scientific issues and how these issues may be used as contexts for science learning. He is interested in how issues-based learning experiences can support student learning of science and development of practices essential for full participation in modern democratic societies. He has also explored ways in which innovative technologies including virtual environments and gaming can support student learning.