In Chapter 2, titled “Confronting Socioscientific Issues” (SSI), Hodson argues that, “the
most effective way of learning to confront SSI, is by confronting SSI, provided there are
appropriate levels of guidance and significance” (p. 33). The author expands this discussion by
first presenting his 3-Phase Approach to confront SSI: modeling, guided practice, and application.
Hodson questions the manner of acquisition of relevant scientific knowledge, and advocates a
“Personalized Approach” which he describes as “attending to the particular needs, interests,
experiences, aspirations and values of every learner, and to the affective and social dimensions of
learning environments” (p. 35). The author goes on to discuss “science-as-culture” and the idea
of “functional science” (p. 37) prelude to examining the nature of science in an extensive
sectional essay ranging from analyses on the National Science Education Standards, discussion of
traditional school curriculum, scientific reporting with regard to instruction and students’ learning
and knowledge in the field to the notion of “evidentiary competence” (p. 39) and its thirteen
components as postulated by Jeong, Songer, and Lee. In this chapter Hodson also discusses the
concepts of explicit approach and implicit approach as related to the nature of science (NOS),