The Role of Physics in Achieving Scientific Literacy in the Present and the Future

Abstract

Most of countries have viewed scientific literacy as an important goal of science education. As advances in physics bring about great changes in economy and society, knowledge of and attitude toward physics are becoming more significant in achieving scientific literacy. Recently, new advent of renovative technology like artificial intelligence and metaverse addresses that competencies relevant to new lifestyles should be taken into account: digital literacy, information literacy, data literacy, media literacy, and ICT literacy. Ironically, the emphasis on unprecedented literacies relevant to science may cause to deteriorate the position of scientific literacy in education. Thus, this chapter gives an overview about different types of literacy in a rapidly changing circumstance and revealed that scientific literacy is still important and essential to accomplish other kinds of literacy. In order to figure out the trends in studies on scientific literacy, this study conducted a bibliometric analysis to collect and interpret a total of 3596 articles dealing with scientific literacy. As a result, the studies are getting more active and new concepts such as computational thinking and information literacy are often found in the recent studies. Physics plays a significant role in achieving scientific literacy and pertaining to the nature of science. Nevertheless, more elements of the nature of science should be regarded in scientific literacy and this chapter illustrates what the aesthetics of physics means and how it relates to thought and decisions in scientific literacy. To answer the questions, you shall find out a variety of events and cases related to physics historically and philosophically. In particular, I will discuss how simplicity, symmetry and sublimity, which have been rarely discussed in science education, bring about renovation in our societies and progression in science. I expect that you will be able to find out the unexplored area for better understanding of scientific literacy.