Open schooling is an educational model that promotes active engagement between schools and the broader community, fostering collaborative efforts to address local challenges and promote community development and well-being. Projects and initiatives on Open Schooling take advantage of the knowledge, practices, visions, attitudes, resources, and values of all involved agents, empowering them to collectively transform society from a reflective and critical standpoint that focuses on sustainability, equity, social justice, and inclusion. Within this cooperative educational framework, students and parents play key roles as engaged participants (European Commission, 2015; 2022; Li et al, 2020).

This study explores parents’ and lower secondary school students’ views and perspectives on an open schooling model within the context of public health education through the implementation of specially designed educational scenarios based on an open schooling model for inquiry-based learning in the context of public health socio-scientific issues. A survey was conducted on 607 lower secondary school students and 60 parents who actively participate in open school educational activities as part of the Partnerships for Science Education (PAFSE) European project.

Partnerships for Science Education (PAFSE) project is a science education project that addresses the challenges of public health. Specifically, PAFSE explores science education as a vehicle to provide citizens with knowledge, tools, and skills to make informed decisions on public health challenges.  In addition, the project promotes community preparedness, by focusing on risk factors for the health condition of individuals, but also on the pre-emptive and protective behaviours from a personal and population perspective, contributing to more literate communities on healthy lifestyles, injury prevention, as well as detection, prevention, and response to infectious diseases (http://www.pafse.eu/). Within the context of the PAFSE project's open schooling model, various stakeholders employed an inquiry and project-based learning approach to negotiate open-ended, ill-structured public health challenges. These challenges, often characterized by conflicting perspectives and multiple potential solutions, align with the characteristics of socio-scientific issues (Zeidler, 2014), as identified by Ratcliffe and Grace (2003). We used inquiry and project-based learning, because is a student-centered, constructivist pedagogical approach, which promotes active student engagement in the learning process, fostering conceptual understanding, higher-order thinking skills, such as critical and creative thinking (Pedaste et al., 2015; Sandoval, 2005), modeling and argumentation skills, communication, and cooperation skills (Minner et al., 2010; Author1, 2020). The teacher acts as a facilitator and guide, challenging students to think beyond their current understanding by providing guided questions, opportunities for reflection, and scaffolding (Anderson, 2002).

Participants devised and implemented three educational scenarios addressing three socio-scientific public health issues: childhood obesity, smoking, and vaccinations, using inquiry-based learning. To assess parents’ and secondary school students’ views and perspectives on an open schooling model regarding public health education, we used a PAFSE open schooling questionnaire. Participants rated their level of agreement with and interest in various aspects of an open schooling model within public health education based on their open schooling experiences. Results indicated widespread support among both students and parents for open schooling model and the collaboration between schools and community stakeholders. This educational approach was widely perceived as a valuable contribution to public health education, promoting community health and well-being, and enhancing the ability to address public health challenges. Additionally, parents held statistically significantly more positive views and perspectives on the open schooling model in the context of public health education compared to students. This study can contribute to the existing body of research by examining and comprehending how students, parents, civil society actors, and the generalpublic can actively participate in the creation of an engaging open schooling model as part of the school curriculum to foster responsible citizenship and public health.

The present study aims to explore the views and perspectives of parents and lower secondary school students regarding an open schooling model within the context of public health education, a field with limited research on this topic. We hope to: (a) enhance the existing literature by gaining insights into the views and perspectives of students and parents, as crucial stakeholders in an open schooling model within the context of public health education, and (b) contribute to the development of a theoretical framework regarding open schooling approach. We set out to answer the following research questions: 1. What are parents’ and lower secondary schoolstudents’ views and perspectives on an open schooling model for inquiry-based learning within the context of public health socioscientific issues? 2. Is there statistically significant difference between parents’ and lower secondary schoolstudents’ views and perspectives on an open schooling model for inquiry-based learning within the context of public health socioscientific issues? For the present study, three distinct educational scenarios with activities and digital learning objects were devised, developed, and enacted based on the PAFSE open schooling approach for inquiry-based learning within the context of public health socio-scientific issues. These three educational scenarios (They can be found at https://photodentro.pafse.eu/) were as follows: • Healthy Eating and Childhood Obesity: Challenges and Solutions. • Vaccines development and the science that responds to hesitancy. • The multiple dimensions of tobacco smoking. A survey was conducted on 607 lower secondary schoolstudents and 60 parents who actively participate in open school educational activities as part of the PAFSE program. Participants reported their agreement and level of interest in various aspects of an open schooling model for public health education using the PAFSE Open Schooling Questionnaire. The questionnaire's items were assessed on a five-point Likert scale, with responses ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5)." Our results indicated that parents strongly support the collaboration between schools and community stakeholders within an open schooling framework for inquiry-based learning within the context of public health SSIs. (M = 4.53, SD = 0.72). Conversely, the results indicate that students hold less strong opinions regarding an open schooling model (M = 3.61, SD = 1.11). The independent-samples t test analyses at 95% confidence indicated that the parents’ views and perspectives on an open schooling model for inquiry-based learning within the context of public health SSIs are statistically significantly higher at the P˂0.001 level than the students’ views and perspectives.

The aim of the present case study was to investigate parents’ and lower secondary schoolstudents’ views and perspectives on an open schooling model regarding public health education, after implementation of specially designed educational scenarios based on an open schooling model for inquiry-based learning in the context of public health socio-scientific issues. The parents’ results emphasize the importance of creating school-community partnerships to enhance public health through understanding, recognizing, and considering the multiplicity of perspectives of public health socio-scientific issues, in ordrer to analyze and resolve them. Yet, the parents’ results emphasize the significance for parents and local community to participate in such open shooling projects with public debate of socio-scientific issues related to their community. The lower rating by the students highlights the necessity for more attention and support for teachers and students of how to implement more effective, student-centered approaches like an open schooling model during learning processes, as well as integrate them within the school curriculum increasing the incorporation of science in society issues and foster democratic processes (Levinson, 2010; 2018; Mogford et al., 2011). Additionally, our findings underscore the importance of exploring effective strategies for incorporating an open schooling approach into health education and biology curricula, thereby fostering public health advancements, and enhancing community well-being. Since schoolteachers’ competences on coordinating and facilitating open schooling for inquiry-based learning processes are very essential, our findings underscore the need of school principals and Ministry of Education advisors to provide strong support to teachers. The main limitation of our study is that we used only questionnaire data, and we could not probe participants' responses to items as with in-depth interviews. Future studies should take a closer look at participants’ responses in-depth. Further research is needed to gain a more nuanced understanding of open schooling's effectiveness and explore its wider educational benefits.

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