Investigation of Pre-service Primary School Teachers' Decision Processes Related to Genetic-based Socioscientific Discussions in Terms of Human Rights

Abstract

In this study, it was aimed to investigate the decision processes of preserviceprimary school teachers (PPSTs) related to genetic-based socioscientificdiscussions in terms of human rights. In this context, in the study, it was focused onthe birth of gifted people with genetic technology, the use of genetic tests in theprocess of getting health insurance, and gender selection by the PGD method. Thestudy was carried out as a descriptive study in the screening model with 203 PPSTsstudying at the fourth grade in three faculties of education in the SoutheasternAnatolia region in Turkey. In the study, the data were collected with the EvaluationForm for Decision Processes related to Genetic-based Socioscientific Discussions.Research data were analyzed by content analysis. The results of the study indicatedthat PPSTs used different decision processes in genetic-based socioscientificdiscussions and based these decision processes on different justifications.Furthermore, they also revealed that PPSTs largely made decisions that wereunrelated to human rights in genetic-based socioscientific discussions. However,they could usually make accurate inferences when they made human rights-baseddecisions. This study is important in terms of providing information on how PPSTs'decision processes related to genetic-based socioscientific discussions are shapedand on how human rights are employed in this process.