Literacy and Science: Each in the Service of the Other

Science education, 2003

This paper draws upon a distinction between fundamental and derived senses of literacy to show that conceptions of scientific literacy attend to the derived sense but tend to neglect the fundamental sense. In doing so, they fail to address a central component of scientific literacy. A notion of literacy in its fundamental sense is elaborated and contrasted to a simple view of reading and writing that still has much influence on literacy instruction in schools and, we believe, is widely assumed in science education. We make suggestions about how scientific literacy would be viewed differently if the fundamental sense of literacy were taken seriously and explore some educational implications of attending to literacy in its fundamental sense when teaching science.

2002

The opening paragraph of Shahn's (1988) article is typical of much of the rhetoric surrounding the notion of scientific literacy, and is worth quoting at length: Science illiteracy is a serious problem. At one level it affects nations; because large parts of their populations are not adequately prepared, they cannot train enough technically proficient people to satisfy their economic and defense needs. More basically it affects people; those who are science illiterate are often deprived of the ability to understand the increasingly technological world, to make informed decisions regarding their health and their environment, to choose careers in remunerative technological fields and, in many ways, to think clearly.

The paper discussed scientific literacy in our society. Scientific literacy has become a way to present a balanced formulation of several legitimate or competing purposes for science teaching in our schools. It has now become increasingly clear that no citizen can be literate in the modern sense until he has an understanding and appreciation of science and its work. It the society is to appreciate the general nature of scientific endeavours or its potential contributions to a better way of life, the public must possess some degree of scientific literacy. Scientific literacy what discussed under the following; characteristics of a scientific literacy person, important of scientific literacy, what to be put in place to popularized scientific literacy in our society.

To build literacy, young children need more than instruction in such fundamental skills as recognizing letters, decoding words, learning vocabulary words, and reading and discussing stories. They also need opportunities to use oral and written language to learn about the world and to communicate their ideas and observations. Although educators traditionally have not thought of science instruction as a setting for literacy learning, inquiry-based science instruction can provide a rich context in which to build language skills. Students are typically curious about the world around them and eager to talk, read, and write about what they are learning. Inquiry-based science, as we define it, involves students in using the tools of science to answer questions about real-world phenomena. This type of inquiry is a collective effort in which students compare their thinking with others' thinking, actively communicate with one another, and express their ideas through words and graphics. In...

Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 2003

Science education, 2000

In this review of the published literature in English on the concept of scientific literacy, the net is cast wider than just the professional science education community, and the diverse works on scientific literacy are brought together in an interpretative synthesis of this literature. Scientific literacy is first placed in an historical context, and a number of different factors that influence interpretations of this concept are discussed thereafter. These factors include the number of different interest groups that are concerned with scientific literacy, different conceptual definitions of the term, the relative or absolute nature of scientific literacy as a concept, different purposes for advocating scientific literacy, and different ways of measuring it. The overview yields a fuller understanding of the various factors that contribute to the concept of scientific literacy, and makes clear the relationships between these factors.

This paper sets out to provide an overview of scientific literacy specifically related to whether emphasis is placed on the 'science' or the 'literacy' aspect, accepting that literacy, wherever used, is wider than simply reading and writing. It does this from a general rather than a country perspective. The emphasis in giving meaning to scientific literacy is placed on the literacy component in recognition of the trend towards relating scientific literacy to skills and values appropriate for a responsible citizen. Rejected is a consideration that scientific literacy is related to an emphasis on the acquisition of content and this is especially considered, noting the social bias and cultural embedding of science. The emphasis on enhancing scientific literacy is placed on an appreciation of the nature of science, the development of personal attributes and the acquisition of socioscientific skills and values. Furthermore, in teaching towards this view of scientific literacy, a key component is seen as relevance and a model of relevance for science teaching is put forward based on relevance being seen from two perspectives. Relevance from both perspectives is very much geared to the view that scientific literacy is best taught by seeing science education as 'education through science' as opposed to 'science through education.'

In the summer of 2003 a group of science educators at Lawrence Hall of Science at the University of California–Berkeley began collaborating with a group of literacy educators in the Graduate School of Education to create a new kind of integrated curriculum, which we dubbed Seeds of Science, Roots of Reading (Seeds/Roots). The fundamental concept was classic integrated curriculum. The fundamental commitment was to build a curriculum that put literacy instruction (texts, routines for reading, word-level skills, vocabulary, and comprehension instruction) to work in the service of acquiring the knowledge, skills, and dispositions of inquiry-based science. Over the past several years, we have developed, evaluated, and revised the curriculum in ways that maximize the synergy between these traditionally segregated curricu-lar enterprises. In this chapter, we report on the goals of the effort, the process of negotiating the integration, and the efficacy of the approach (compared to more traditionally encapsulated approaches to promoting science and literacy expertise). In addition, we turn to the all-important

2001

In science education research we aim toward giving the students a better understanding of science, be it mechanics, catalysis or ecology. But should all students learn mechanics, catalysis and ecology, and if so what should they learn about it, and to what end? To put it differently, is there a global rationale behind our secondary science curricula, and how should this rationale affect teaching? These were the central questions we tried to answer at the year 2000 edition of the biennial Utrecht/ICASE Symposium. Of course, different stakeholders, such as universities, employers, teachers, or students will have different answers to the above questions, and answers might differ for different branches of education. However, it is widely felt that science plays a role in everybody's lives, and that therefore the general public should have a basic understanding of science. The AAAS' curriculum reform initiative Project 2061 put it like this: Education has no higher purpose than preparing people to lead personally .fulfilling and responsible lives. For its part, science education meaning education in science, mathematics, and technology should help students to develop the understandings and habits of mind they need to become compassionate human beings able to think for themselves and to face life head on. It should equip them also to participate thoughtfully with fellow citizens in building and protecting a society that is open, decent, and vital [T] he science-literate person is one who is aware that science, mathematics, and technology are interdependent human enterprises with strengths and limitations; understands key concepts and principles of science; is familiar with the natural world and recognizes both its diversity and unity; and uses scientific knowledge and scientific ways of thinking for individual and social purposes (Rutherford & Ahlgren, 1991). 0. de Jong, E.R. Savelsbergh and A. Mikis (eds.) Teaching for Scientific Literacy, 1-4 20 01 CD13-Press. Utrecht, The Netherlands.. Elwin Savelsbergh et al. Science literacy, or as many people say, scientific literacy (SL)', is thus considered vital to participation in modem society. However, that is about the end of the agreement as scientific literacy is a fuzzy concept that masks many different meanings (for an overview, see Laugksch, 2000). For instance, the term SL has been used to refer to content knowledge, communicative competency, science theory, and cultural and ethical perspectives. Its fuzziness doesn't keep people from disagreeing 'with the idea. Shams (1995), for instance, pleads for the less ambitious goal of science appreciation, because he believes the essential scientific knowledge needed for political decisions goes far beyond the reach of the school curriculum. The stance taken by Shamos, not only reflects a belief about science (and about school), but also a view about society. According to this view scientists are knowledgeable individuals, and one has to put trust in the proper individuals. An alternative worldview is to see society as characterized by complexity, provisionality, uncertain and occasionally contradictory scientific knowledge, and an absence of general standards and values. In such a society, individuals and institutions must reflect on risks and uncertainties (Beck, 1992; Giddens, 1991). Where one view calls for trust and appreciation, the other sees participation and empowerment as central goals for science education. These are very different, albeit not mutually exclusive, goals for science education. One aspect that might be missed here is the practical relevance science and technology have to an individual. In contrast to Jonathan Osborne's belief, expressed at the symposium, that his generation must be about the last who could use their physics knowledge to fix their cars, the UNESCO/ICASE project Scientific and Technological Literacy for A/1 produced learning materials that put an emphasis on the practical relevance of science and technology, such as how to avoid malaria (Holbrook, Mukherjee, & Varma, 2000). In this volume, Marjan Margadant and Jonathan Osborne are most explicit about the relation between literacy and society. The same must be true for other SL learning goals, and therefore, an important step should be to develop teaching approaches to support SL. That is what most of the volume is about, where teaching is to be taken in a broad sense. Teaching thus involves the curriculum level as well as concrete teaching materials, and it includes classroom teaching as well as informal education. The contributions by Jonathan Osborne, and by Astrid Bulte, Hannah Westbroek and Albert Pilot deal with the curriculum level. Osborne first argues that current teaching practice is based on a number of fallacious assumptions. Next, he presents recommendations for future content and structure, and for the implementation process. Bulte et al. start from the interdependence between content, pedagogy and philosophy of science in the Chemistry curriculum. They propose that the philosophical starting point should be science as a social enterprise. Next, they describe how this view affects both content and pedagogy. Finally, they discuss the design of a prototype teaching-module based on this viewpoint. The contributions by Koos Kortland and by Daan van Wee lie both describe teaching materials with a focus on decision-making and participation in societal debate. Kortland discusses a teaching unit at lower secondary level about the waste issue. Van Wee lie discusses a teaching unit at upper secondary level about biodiversity. The projects described by Carlos Catalao and by Erik Plomp both aim at a positive attitude and interest in science. Cam lito describes Ciencia Viva, a project, initiated by the Portuguese Ministry of Science and Technology, to stimulate science culture among larger parts of the population. Plomp describes the development of Science Exhibits to evoke an interest in science among lower secondary students Finally, the materials Miia Rannikmae developed in cooperation with teachers are more geared towards the practical uses science can have. In her contribution she stresses the importance of gradual change, small scale development and teacher involvement. 3 IZ Elwin Savelsbergh et al. Clearly, there is a variety of perspectives and emphases: some authors advocate radical change, others promote gradual change; some take top down approaches, others start from grass root reforms; some promote critical thinking, others promote a positive attitude, and finally, some authors start from specific contents, whereas others take more generic teaching methods as their starting point. In a concluding paper, Harrie Eijkelhof compares the merits of the different approaches and identifies common trends, pitfalls and opportunities for further research and development. We found it illuminating to have this group of people together at the symposium, and, later on, to see their papers grouped together. Clearly, there is no single answer to the question of how to teach for SL. Nevertheless, there are shared concerns, and there are common elements in our ideas about how to proceed. Although scientific literacy may be a fuzzy concept, the reading of these papers makes clear that it is not an empty concept. References Beck, U. (1992). Risk society:Towards a new modernity. London: Sage. Giddens, A. (1991). Modernity and self-idonity: self and society in the late modern age.

Research in Science Education - Past, Present, and Future, 2002