Developing students' ability to engage critically with science in the news: identifying elements of the ‘media awareness’ dimension

Abstract

Worldwide, science education reform movements are stressing the need to promote ‘scientific literacy’ among young people. Increasingly, this is taken to include empowering students to engage critically with science‐related news reporting. Despite this requirement now featuring in statutory curricula throughout the UK, there has, to date, been a dearth of research‐informed advice to assist science teachers as they identify appropriate instructional objectives in this regard and design relevant learning activities through which these might be achieved. In this study, prominent science communication scholars, science journalists, science educators and media educators were interviewed to determine what knowledge, skills and habits of mind they judged valuable for individuals reading science‐related news stories. Teachers of science and of English from nine secondary schools in Northern Ireland addressed the same issue. A striking – and significant – finding of the study was the very substantial number of statements of knowledge, skill and disposition offered by participants that relate to ‘media awareness’, an issue largely overlooked in the science education literature. The school‐focused phase of the research suggests that cross‐curricular approaches involving teachers of science collaborating with those of English/media education or media studies may best serve to address this important curricular goal.