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This paper reports the results of a study on the implementation of the Ethical Dilemma STEAM Teaching Model in secondary schools in Jakarta, Indonesia. This interdisciplinary curriculum approach employed ‘ethical dilemma story pedagogy’ in a STEAM education project designed to engage students in values-based chemistry learning. Drawing on the arts, specially written ethical dilemma stories posing real-world environmental problems engaged students in exploring their value systems. Students reflected on the pros and cons of ethical dilemmas related to the everyday use of artificial fertilizers, disposal of used cooking oil and detergent waste, and environmental pollution caused by plastic waste. The purpose of the study was to investigate the potential of the Ethical Dilemma STEAM Teaching Model to empower Indonesian secondary school students with both chemistry knowledge and transdisciplinary capabilities for resolving environmental problems. The researchers conducted an interpretive case study of four high-school chemistry classes to understand students’ learning experiences and outcomes. Data were obtained from students’ reflective journals, semi-structured interviews, and classroom observations. The results demonstrate that students engaged in deep chemistry learning while simultaneously developing critical reflective social thinking, collaborative decision-making skills, and increased awareness of the need to protect the environment in order to support sustainable development. The study revealed that chemistry education can play a strategic role through ethical values learning in empowering students to become agents of change for environmental sustainability. Further research is warranted into the efficacy of the Ethical Dilemma STEAM Teaching Model for empowering students in sustainability education across a broad range of science-related topics and sociocultural contexts.

The paper clarified the developing lesson plan of fertilizer dilemma story for integrated knowledge practicing through lesson study. Through the PD program using lesson study, the theoretical framework of dilemma story was adopted to reference of the developing lesson plan. Methodology regarded paradigm. Participants included primary school teachers as team teachers, supervisors, expertise university lecturer, and school director. The primary school teachers as team teachers include a science teacher, a mathematics teacher, a technology teacher, and an art teacher in Nongsonghong district, Khon Kaen, Thailand. The developing lesson plan of fertilizer dilemma story for integrated knowledge practicing through lesson study will be interpreted through document analysis and participant observation. The innovation lesson plan of fertilizer dilemma story for integrated knowledge practicing could be summarized through the outcomes of lesson study design – plan, see, and reflect. The results provided the overview of the lesson plan of fertilizer dilemma story for integrated knowledge practicing that could be viewed through the structuring questions for ethical dilemma fertilizer story and example of dilemma story chemical fertilizer. This study may have implications for development program for integrate the curriculum in Thailand.

Civic education is a moral development imperative of the Indonesian national curriculum and the United Nation’s policy on education for sustainable development. It was within this context that we investigated the impact of ethical dilemma story pedagogy (EDSP) on student learning in a constructivist Indonesian STEM learning environment. EDSP uses specially-designed stories to engage students in ethical decision-making for resolving sustainable development dilemmas occurring in their daily lives. The research was conducted in six Indonesian middle schools with 462 students of chemistry, and it was designed to lead to understanding of how well students engaged in a constructivist values learning environment aimed at developing chemistry knowledge/skills and ethical values for living sustainably in the 21st century. Data were collected using the Constructivist Values Learning Environment Survey (CVLES), classroom observations, student interviews and students’ reflective journals. Generally, students had positive perceptions of their constructivist values learning environment, engaged deeply in chemistry learning, reflected critically on their values and the social use of chemistry, and practised mutually-respectful communication and collaborative decision-making as strategies for solving sustainability dilemmas. We conclude that ethical dilemma story pedagogy can play an important role in integrating STEM education and civic education.

Drawing on an autoethnographic inquiry we present a first-person, narrative account of a mathematics teacher’s experience of developing an ethically responsible teaching practice. Reflective commentary on narrative vignettes illustrates the teacher’s inquiry in the role of researcher as transformative learner. Inspired by transformative learning theory, he engaged in critical self-reflection on his moments of teaching, which prompted him to switch from the teacher’s point of view and pay heed to his student’s meaning perspective. This transformation of perspective enabled him to avoid conflict by negotiating a deal with the young resistant learner – ‘a rebel kid’ – to generate mutual respect, focus on values, and successfully adjust to the student’s learning trajectory. The result of this inquiry suggests that endeavouring to teach from students’ points of view is important not only for engaging meaningfully in an educative relationship but also for enhancing the sense of ethical responsibility of both teachers and students.

The Arctic has warmed more than twice as fast as the global average since the late twentieth century, a phenomenon known as Arctic amplification (AA). Recently, there have been considerable advances in understanding the physical contributions to AA, and progress has been made in understanding the mechanisms that link it to midlatitude weather variability. Observational studies overwhelmingly support that AA is contributing to winter continental cooling. Although some model experiments sup port the observational evidence, most modelling results show little connection between AA and severe midlatitude weather or suggest the export of excess heating from the Arctic to lower latitudes. Divergent conclusions between model and observational studies, and even intramodel studies, continue to obfuscate a clear understanding of how AA is influencing midlatitude weather.

“The fish becomes aware of the water in which it swims” is a metaphor that represents Yuli’s revelatory journey about the hidden power of culture in her personal identity and professional teaching practice. While engaging in a critical auto/ethnographic inquiry into her lived experience as a science teacher in Indonesian and Australian schools, she came to understand the powerful role of culture in shaping her teaching identity. Yuli realised that she is a product of cultural hybridity resulting from interactions of very different cultures—Javanese, Bimanese, Indonesian and Australian. Traditionally, Javanese and Indonesian cultures do not permit direct criticism of others. This influenced strongly the way she had learned to interact with students and caused her to be very sensitive to others. During this inquiry she learned the value of engaging students in open discourse and overt caring, and came to realise that teachers bringing their own cultures to the classroom can be both a source of power and a problem. In this journey, Yuli came to understand the hegemonic power of culture in her teaching identity, and envisioned how to empower herself as a good teacher educator of pre-service science teachers.