The pedagogy of scientific literacy

Abstract

Competency levels around scientific literacy for high school students in the United States are insufficient for students' future ability to be competent consumers and voters. The purpose of this action research study was to explore how students were being exposed to scientific literacy concepts in high school science courses in the United States. Participants and data collected in Cycle 1 consisted of eleven interviews with high school science teachers exploring their views of scientific literacy and how they teach the nature of science in their classrooms. Action steps including a website with resources for teaching for scientific literacy were designed, implemented, and evaluated in Cycle 2 to make integrating nature of science understandings easier for high school science teachers. Findings included: 1) science teachers believe that scientific literacy is important, however they do not know exactly what scientific literacy is or how to teach for it and 2) high school science teachers seem willing to incorporate teaching for scientific literacy into their practice if they can do so easily. Implications included a continued need for resources which are readily accessible and easy to use and understand for high school science teachers to use in order to improve how scientific literacy and the nature of science are taught in high school science classrooms in the United States.--Author's abstract