It was aimed to improve the reasoning skills, scientific thinking skills and decision-making skills of individuals by using socioscientific issues (SSI) which take place as special objectives on the national science curriculum. In this context, this study investigates pre-service science teachers’ awareness about socioscientific issues during their undergraduate program and affective tendencies of pre-service science teachers’ who know SSI and exemplify SSI correctly. This study was carried out at the end of the spring semester of the 2021-2022 academic year and 200 pre-service science teachers from four different state universities of Turkey participated in this study. Quantitative research model was used in the study and data were obtained via Google Form. There are three parts in the questionnaire. In the first part demographic characteristics of pre-service science teachers regarding gender, university and grade levels were asked. In the second part, pre-service science teachers’ awareness about the concept of SSI, giving example/s to SSI, way of knowing of the concept of SSI, whether they took course/s in the undergraduate program on SSI, if so which course they took, whether they give instruction on SSI were asked in order to determine their knowledge on SSI. In the third part, Affective Tendency Scale for Teaching Sociosicentific Issues was used. According to findings of the research, 177 of the participants stated that they were aware of SSI and 155 of them gave correct examples to SSI. Thus, the study was carried out by using data of 155 pre-service teachers. While the most known socioscientific issue was genetically modified organisms (GMO), 38.71% of the participants stated that they were aware of socioscientific issues through compulsory courses. Within the scope of these compulsory courses, 34.03% Science Teaching I, 26.47% Scientific Reasoning Skills and 10.08% Science Education Programs were stated mostly. There were 21.29% pre-service science teachers who gave instruction on SSI and these instructions were carried out within the scope of Teaching Practice or the courses they took in the undergraduate program. Opinions on the affective tendency scale for teaching socioscientific issues were examined and each item was interpreted as a percentage.

Socioscientific Issues, pre-service science teachers, affective tendency.