‘Scientific Literacy’: An Exercise in Model Building

Abstract

‘Literacy’ and ‘science’ are power words and the interaction between them is of potential interest to people working at other boundaries between text and content, such as that characterising wider disciplinary literacy. ‘Scientific literacy’ has a deep enough literature base to support an attempt to build a model of these interactions. If robust, such a model could synthesise existing literature and resolve differences within a narrower range of journals. This quantitative review suggests such a model based on a wide review of previous literature and then challenges it by comparing publication patterns in premium international journals dealing specifically with research in science education. The emergent model comprises interaction between Use of, Engagement with and Access to science and its application revealed changes in publication patterns both within and between the five science education research journals surveyed. The use of power words can obscure, rather than clarify, discussions that lead to curriculum and pedagogical decisions. Robust models can resolve multiple components of a complex field and make it easier to understand for newcomers, easier to explain when change seems necessary to those more deeply involved, and then expedite the prediction of fruitful areas for further work.

Digitainability—Digital Competences Post-COVID-19 for a Sustainable Society

“…However, the digital divide exists in the differences in access and use (consumption and production) of the digital and is deeply linked to the cultural, economic and social conditions of individuals, as well as their gender and age [79,[106][107][108], which hinders sustainable development [21,104] in a post-COVID-19 context [103,109]. For example, the "COVID-19 Infodemic" with fake news focusing on COVID-19 [35,36,110] created situations of misinformation that science communication found difficult to clarify [111][112][113][114][115][116][117].…”

Bibliometric Analysis of Research on Scientific Literacy between 2018 and 2022: Science Education Subject

“…SL is a cross-disciplinary study (Shaffer et al, 2019) that students use to evaluate the quality of information and scientific arguments put forward by scientists and media (Aristeidou & Herodotou, 2020). It is essential to teach and integrate SL into the education system (O'Toole et al, 2020) to prepare students to operate their science content in various real contexts (Spires et al, 2018). It was further explained that integrating SL into learning is a form of preparation for students who are aware and able to solve problems (Kuthe et al, 2020).…”

“…It was further explained that integrating SL into learning is a form of preparation for students who are aware and able to solve problems (Kuthe et al, 2020). Discussions on integrating and learning SL are still being carried out today (O'Toole et al, 2020) due to the broad context in which the term is used (Ni'mah, 2019). Bibliometric analysis needs to be carried out to synthesize the issues of teaching and research on SL in science education.…”

Validity and Practicality of Sangiran Site-Based Virtual Laboratory Learning Media on Evolutionary Materials to Empower Science Literacy

“…One of the abilities that students need in the 21st century is science literacy skills (McFarlane, 2013;Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2008;Rosyadah Mukti et al, 2019;Turiman et al, 2012). Science literacy has been widely studied and researched from various aspects (Lawless & Brown, 2015;O'toole et al, 2020;Shaffer et al, 2019;Sulistiyowati et al, 2018;Suwono, 2016). Science literacy or often called "scientific literacy" is the application of scientific knowledge in identifying problems, describing scientific phenomena, and formulating conclusions based on evidence collected from the surrounding environment (PISA, 2019).…”