Scientific literacy: Another look at its historical and contemporary meanings and its relationship to science education reform

Scientific literacy is a term that has been used since the late 1950s to describe a desired familiarity with science on the part of the general public. A review of the history of science education shows that there have been at least nine separate and distinct goals of science education that are related to the larger goal of scientific literacy. It is argued in this paper that instead of defining scientific literacy in terms of specifically prescribed learning outcomes, scientific literacy should be conceptualized broadly enough for local school districts and individual classroom teachers to pursue the goals that are most suitable for their particular situations along with the content and methodologies that are most appropriate for them and their students. This would do more to enhance the public's understanding and appreciation of science than will current efforts that are too narrowly aimed at increasing scores on international tests of science knowledge. A broad and open‐ended approach to scientific literacy would free teachers and students to develop a wide variety of innovative responses to the call for an increased understanding of science for all. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 37: 582–601, 2000     

Reading and writing to learn science: Achieving scientific literacy

A key step in helping students to achieve scientific literacy is to ensure that each school's curriculum supports students' efforts to learn science meaningfully. Educational researchers play a vital role in this step by providing teachers, teacher educators, administrators, and policy makers with information about the creation of a curriculum that supports scientific literacy. In a scientific literacy curriculum, reading and writing can serve as dynamic vehicles for learning science meaningfully. The task of educational researchers is to show how reading and writing can be used most effectively to support science learning. Much of what is done now in schools is based on teacher intuition—good intuition—but intuition nonetheless. What is needed is school-based research to validate and build upon these intuitions. This article is intended to stimulate research on reading and writing to learn science.     

Narrative in the science curriculum

Internationally, science curricula make specific demands on students for the achievement of some level of scientific literacy. The details of what this means, and how it is to be achieved, have often been left for the teacher to elaborate. This paper argues thatnarrative, as a valued component of scientific literacy, offers a structure that allows scientific concepts to be (1) more easily integrated into other conceptual understandings, (2) more easily recalled, (3) more easily ordered and structured in the mind, and (4) an important component of the what it means to be a Self. The paper ends with practical suggestions for the use of narratives in the science classroom. Specializations: language and science, science for nurses, narrative and science education.     

Designing learning environments to promote competent lay engagement with science

An important goal of science education is promoting scientific literacy—the competence to interact with science as laypeople to solve problems and make decisions in their personal and community lives. This is made more challenging in an age of increasing science denialism. In this article, we discuss how to design learning environments for science education that can help students attain scientific literacy. We argue that science curricula should encompass lessons with two distinguishable foci. One focus engages students in understanding the reliability of science. The second focus engages students as laypeople interacting with science in the public sphere. We discuss these two curricular foci, presenting examples from our own work on designing and implementing instruction with the first focus.     

The science/technology interaction: Implications for science literacy

Science literacy includes understanding technology. This raises questions about the role of technology in science education as well as in general education. To explore these questions, this article begins with a brief history of technology education as it relates to science education and discusses how new conceptions of science and technological literacy are moving beyond the dichotomies that formerly characterized the relationship between science and technology education. It describes how Benchmarks for Science Literacy, the National Science Education Standards, and the Standards for Technological Literacy have been making a case for introducing technology studies into general education. Examples of specific technological concepts fundamental for science literacy are provided. Using one example from the design of structures, the article examines how understanding about design (i. e., understanding constraints, trade‐offs, and failures) is relevant to science literacy. This example also raises teaching and learning issues, including the extent to which technology‐based activities can address scientific and technological concepts. The article also examines how research can provide guides for potential interactions between science and technology and concludes with reflections on the changes needed, such as the creation of curriculum models that establish fruitful interactions between science and technology education, for students to attain an understanding of technology. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 38: 715–729, 2001     

BANGLADESHI SCIENCE TEACHERS’ PERSPECTIVES OF SCIENTIFIC LITERACY AND TEACHING PRACTICES

In line with a current global trend, junior secondary science education in Bangladesh aims to provide science education for all students to enable them to use their science learning in everyday life. This aim is consistent with the call for scientific literacy, which argues for engaging students with science in everyday life. This paper illustrates Bangladeshi science teachers’ perspectives of scientific literacy along with their views on teaching practices. Participating teachers held a range of perspectives of scientific literacy, including some naive perspectives. The paper also reports that whilst teachers’ verbalised practices in relation to their emphasis on engaging students with science in everyday life follows the emphases as required in teaching for promoting scientific literacy, their assessment practices may not be useful to promote it. The discussion explores the meaning of these findings and provides implications for school science educational practice in Bangladesh.     

高中物理教学中科学素养的培养

培养学生的科学素养是科学教育目的的重要组成部分,受到世界各国科学教育界的普遍重视。高中物理课程作为主要的科学课程之一,加之其独特的学科特点,在物理教学中进行科学素养培养的途径很多。     

Developing an instrument for assessing students’ concepts of the nature of technology

Background: In Bangladesh, a common science curriculum caters for all students at the junior secondary level. Since this curriculum is for all students, its aims are both to build a strong foundation in science while still providing students with the opportunities to use science in everyday life – an aim consistent with the notion of scientific literacy.

Purpose: This paper reports Bangladeshi science teachers’ perspectives and practices in regard to the promotion of scientific literacy.

Sample: Six science teachers representing a range of geographical locations, school types with different class sizes, lengths of teaching experience and educational qualifications.

Design and method: This study employed a case study approach. The six teachers and their associated science classes (including students) were considered as six cases. Data were gathered through observing the teachers’ science lessons, interviewing them twice – once before and once after the lesson observation, and interviewing their students in focus groups.

Results: This study reveals that participating teachers held a range of perspectives on scientific literacy, including some naïve perspectives. In addition, their perspectives were often not seen to be realised in the classroom as for teachers the emphasis of learning science was more traditional in nature. Many of their teaching practices promoted a culture of academic science that resulted in students’ difficulty in finding connections between the science they study in school and their everyday lives. This research also identified the tension which teachers encountered between their religious values and science values while they were teaching science in a culture with a religious tradition.

Conclusions: The professional development practice for science teachers in Bangladesh with its emphasis on developing science content knowledge may limit the scope for promoting the concepts of scientific literacy. Opportunities for developing pedagogic knowledge is also limited and consequently impacts on teachers’ ability to develop the concepts of scientific literacy and learn how to teach for its promotion.     

科学史与科学教学的有效契合

在科学课程的教学中,利用科学史组织教学能极大地丰富科学课堂,对学生的科学素养的培养具有积极作用。     

Information literacy in science writing: how students find,identify, and use scientific literature

For undergraduate students to achieve science literacy, they must first develop information literacy skils. These skills align with Information Literacy Standards and include determining appropriate databases, distinguishing among resource types, and citing resources ethically. To effectively improve information literacy and science literacy, we must identify how students interact with authentic scientific texts. In this case study, we addressed this aim by embedding a science librarian into a science writing course, where students wrote a literature review on a research topic of their choice. Library instruction was further integrated through the use of an online guide and outside assistance. To evaluate the evolution of information literacy in our students and provide evidence of student practices, we used task-scaffolded writing assessments, a reflection, and surveys. We found that students improved their ability and confidence in finding research articles using discipline-specific databases as well as their ability to distinguish primary from secondary research articles. We also identified ways students improperly used and cited resources in their writing assignments. While our results reveal a better understanding of how students find and approach scientific research articles, additional research is needed to develop effective strategies to improve long-term information literacy in the sciences.     

Undergraduate science students' images of science

This article describes views about the nature of science held by a small sample of science students in their final year at the university. In a longitudinal interview study, 11 students were asked questions about the nature of science during the time they were involved in project work. Statements about the nature of science were characterized and coded using a framework drawing on aspects of the epistemology and sociology of science. The framework in this study has three distinct areas: the relationship between data and knowledge claims, the nature of lines of scientific enquiry, and science as a social activity. The students in our sample tended to see knowledge claims as resting solely on empirical grounds, although some students mentioned social factors as also being important. Many of the students showed significant development in their understanding of how lines of scientific enquiry are influenced by theoretical developments within a discipline, over the 5–8 month period of their project work. Issues relating to scientists working as a community were underrepresented in the students' discussions about science. Individual students drew upon a range of views about the nature of science, depending on the scientific context being discussed. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 36: 201–219, 1999     

Reforming science in the school curriculum: a critical analysis

This article is concerned with the founding purposes and justification of natural science in the statutory school curriculum. It offers a critique of the strand of argument and the proposals for reform which have developed after the report Beyond 2000 focused on a particular usage of the term ‘scientific literacy’. Two lines of argument are criticised. These are, first, the view that a founding purpose of the science curriculum can be to prepare students for dealing as adults with socio‐political issues with a scientific aspect, and, second, that there is a well‐defined distinction to be drawn between the purposes of the statutory curriculum for pupils who will become professional scientists and others. The article suggests that these issues have not been the subject of sustained and open‐minded examination in recent years, and calls for such an examination.     

Influence of science instruction reform on academic performance of eighth grade students in Chinese inner-Mongolia autonomous region

Abstract

The Chinese government has implemented centralised science curriculum standards to change science teaching from a didactic to inquiry-based approach to support all students in acquiring science literacy. Framed through theoretical perspectives of inquiry-based instruction and cultural pedagogy, this study examined the influence and impact of these reforms on Chinese science teaching and the performance of 8th grade Chinese students in the Inner-Mongolia Autonomous Regions using instruments developed by TIMSS 2007. It revealed that mixed, lecture-based, more inquiry-based and practice-based science teaching approaches were popularly practiced in classrooms, with the mixed-teaching approach being the most popular. While a mixed approach was positively associated with performance, the frequent practice of a more inquiry-based approach had a significant negative relationship. Neither lecture-based nor practiced-based teaching approaches were found to be related to performance. This finding questions the assumption that inquiry-based science teaching is central to improving the science performance of all students in China.     

How Relevant Is R.S. Peters’ Conception of Education to Science Education?

This paper discusses R.S. Peters’ concept of education, particularly his notion of cognitive perspective and its relevance to school science education. In light of the problems inherent in any attempt to define the notion of scientific literacy, it is argued that the development of cognitive perspective can be considered an important, if not the ultimate, goal of school science education. Such a goal not only provides an alternative way to view the development of scientific literacy, but it also points to a conception of scientific literacy that is neither too narrow nor too broad. In view of recent reform efforts that promote a utilitarian and instrumentalist conception of school science education, Peters’ notion of cognitive perspective can provide food for thought for all those interested in a science education that educates students in science by helping them understand the personal and the wider significance of scientific knowledge. Such a conception of school science education is in line with the view that education and learning should make students change their outlook on the world. In addition, such a conception can enrich the ongoing dialogue on scientific literacy as the primary goal of school science education.     

Scientific literacy and informal science teaching

Two stages in research on scientific literary are identified: a composite saturation stage in which definitions covered all objects of science education and a stage where researchers focused on small manageable portions of scientific literary. Initial and continuous scientific literacy research in which the focus is on cognitive preference for science and informal science teaching is described. Underlying cognitive preference is a value preference for science. Three interdependent but clearly distinguishable forms of science teaching, formal, nonformal and informal, are described. Informal science teaching is identified as a condition for and an outcome of scientific literacy.     

A study of urban middle school students with high and low attitudes toward science

Scientific literacy is essential to survive in this technological world, but it appears that scientific literacy is not of high priority for many students. This research project was undertaken to gather demographic data, intentions to engage in science, and attitudes of urban, middle school students. Scores on the Simpson-Troost Attitude Instrument were analyzed using the Statistical Analysis System. Results indicate less than 50% of the students come from high-school-graduated parents who work full-time to support the family. Less than 50% of these students indicate any interest to engage in science at the high school level, yet many plan to enter a science-related career. A majority of the students possess an uncertain attitude toward their science teachers and science curricula. However, all possessed high achievement motivations, strong positive attitudes toward their families, and high self-concepts.     

Understanding science teaching effectiveness: examining how science-specific and generic instructional practices relate to student achievement in secondary science classrooms

ABSTRACT

In order to create conditions for students’ meaningful and rigorous intellectual engagement in science classrooms, it is critically important to help science teachers learn which strategies and approaches can be used best to develop students’ scientific literacy. Better understanding how science teachers’ instructional practices relate to student achievement can provide teachers with beneficial information about how to best engage their students in meaningful science learning. To address this need, this study examined the instructional practices that 99 secondary biology teachers used in their classrooms and employed regression to determine which instructional practices are predictive of students’ science achievement. Results revealed that the secondary science teachers who had well-managed classroom environments and who provided opportunities for their students to engage in student-directed investigation-related experiences were more likely to have increased student outcomes, as determined by teachers’ value-added measures. These findings suggest that attending to both generic and subject-specific aspects of science teachers’ instructional practice is important for understanding the underlying mechanisms that result in more effective science instruction in secondary classrooms. Implications about the use of these observational measures within teacher evaluation systems are discussed.     

Redesigning a General Education Science Course to Promote Critical Thinking

Recent studies question the effectiveness of a traditional university curriculum in helping students improve their critical thinking and scientific literacy. We developed an introductory, general education (gen ed) science course to overcome both deficiencies. The course, titled Foundations of Science, differs from most gen ed science offerings in that it is interdisciplinary; emphasizes the nature of science along with, rather than primarily, the findings of science; incorporates case studies, such as the vaccine-autism controversy; teaches the basics of argumentation and logical fallacies; contrasts science with pseudoscience; and addresses psychological factors that might otherwise lead students to reject scientific ideas they find uncomfortable. Using a pretest versus posttest design, we show that students who completed the experimental course significantly improved their critical-thinking skills and were more willing to engage scientific theories the general public finds controversial (e.g., evolution), while students who completed a traditional gen ed science course did not. Our results demonstrate that a gen ed science course emphasizing the process and application of science rather than just scientific facts can lead to improved critical thinking and scientific literacy.     

Making a map of science: General systems theory as a conceptual framework for tertiary science education

As a result of the reductionist approach to science curricula in tertiary education, students are learning science in a fragmented way. With the purpose of providing students with tools for a more holistic understanding of science, an integrated approach based on the use of general systems theory (GST) and the concept of 'mapping' scientific knowledge (its relationships, connections and generalities) is developed. GST is used as the core methodology for understanding science and its complexity. By analogy with geographic maps, we introduce scales of educational 'science maps' - scales of integration. Three principal scales of integration can be distinguished in GST, which we consider necessary for GST to be effectively applied in education. They are (a) the scale of branches and fields of science, (b) the scale of hypotheses and theories, and (c) the scale of structures and hierarchies. Examples of each of these three scales are provided from the field of physical science. The role of the scientific community in producing accessible, and essential, maps of scientific knowledge for science education is discussed.     

Robotics and science literacy: Thinking skills,science process skills and systems understanding

This paper reports the results of a study of the relationship of robotics activity to the use of science literacy skills and the development of systems understanding in middle school students. Twenty‐six 11–12‐year‐olds (22 males and 4 females) attending an intensive robotics course offered at a summer camp for academically advanced students participated in the research. This study analyzes how students utilized thinking skills and science process skills characteristic of scientifically literate individuals to solve a robotics challenge. In addition, a pre/post test revealed that course participants increased their systems understanding, t (21) = 22.47, p < .05. It is argued that the affordances of the robotics environment coupled with a pedagogical approach emphasizing open‐ended, extended inquiry prompts the utilization of science literacy‐based thinking and science process skills and leads to increased systems understanding. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 45: 373–394, 2008