Developing Student Scientific Literacy

Our culture lacks scientific literacy. Gallup polls indicate that 60 percent of Republicans, 30 percent of independents, and 13 percent of Democrats believe that global warming is not related to human activities (Brenan & Saad, 2018). The fact that only 69 percent of Americans want to restrict carbon emissions from coal power plants further illustrates scientific illiteracy (Popovich, Schwartz, & Schlossberg, 2017). General literacy, on the other hand, has been steadily increasing; for example, between 1990 and 2016, the literate population 15-24 years old has increased globally from 83 to 91 percent, from 101M to 167M, respectively

(UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2018). Yes, this is already staggeringly high, but the trend is showing significant and continuing improvement. Why is scientific literacy not progressing at the same rate? To understand this, we first need to understand what scientific literacy is.

Defining Scientific Literacy

“Scientific literacy is the knowledge and understanding of scientific concepts and processes required for personal decision making, participation in civic and cultural affairs, and economic productivity” (Lombrozo, 2015). We can break this down into specific skills and practices that include the following:

Accelerate Learning, Inc. 1 Scientific Literacy Defined

1. Ask[ing], find[ing], or determin[ing] answers to questions derived

from curiosity about everyday experiences;

2. Describ[ing], explain[ing], and predict[ing] natural phenomena; 3. Understanding articles about science in the popular press and engag[ing] in social conversation about the validity of the

conclusions;

4. Identify[ing] scientific issues underlying national and local decisions and express[ing] positions that are scientifically and technologically informed;

5. Evaluat[ing] the quality of scientific information on the basis of its

source and the methods used to generate it;

6. Pos[ing] and evaluat[ing] arguments based on evidence and

apply[ing] conclusions from such arguments appropriately.

(National Research Council, 1996)

Translating these practices into classroom instruction can be challenging. All too often, educators erroneously accept that memorization of facts and vocabulary lists represents scientific literacy. The memorization of facts and vocabulary do provide students short-term superficial knowledge, but it is not the same as developing citizens who are scientifically literate. At best, rote learning teaches our students to be scientifically knowledgeable but not scientifically literate.

Accelerate Learning, Inc. 2 Scientific Knowledge vs. Scientific Literacy

It may be tempting to equate scientific literacy and scientific knowledge; however, scientific knowledge is only a small subset of scientific literacy. Scientific literacy goes beyond just the facts and enters the realm of science as a process and activity that we should all partake in.

Yet a recent Pew Research Center study of the American population found that even adults have weak scientific knowledge. For example, among the survey participants, few could

...identify the property of a sound wave that determines loudness. Just 35% correctly answer amplitude, or height. Some 33% incorrectly say it is frequency and 23% say it is wavelength.

And just 34% correctly state that water boils at a lower temperature in a high-altitude setting

(Denver) than near sea level (Los Angeles)” (2015, Cary & Goo).

Needless to say, our level of scientific knowledge is not good. In fact, the American

Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) see[s] US K-12 education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields as “average” or “below average” compared with other industrialized countries (2015, Cary & Goo).

If the facts are not “sticking,” why even try to teach scientific literacy? Therein lies the precise problem—and the solution: it is the way we teach science that makes students loathe it.

Hattie’s research (2018) describes the need for students to intentionally progress through surface learning, deep learning, and transfer learning. Surface learning, the basic understanding of scientific facts, does matter in that it is a prerequisite to deep and transfer

Accelerate Learning, Inc. 3 learning. Surface learning alone, though, is not enough. Teaching science as fast-fun-facts results in only surface learning and is a surefire way to create misconceptions over time as memory degrades. Scientific knowledge driven by observations of natural phenomena and subsequent academic explanations is still important—without scientific knowledge, we cannot expect people to make sound personal, civic, cultural, and economic decisions, as the definition of scientific literacy demands. But we need to shift the paradigm and teach scientific content within the overarching mission of scientific literacy. Teaching with scientific literacy as a goal develops not only a factual understanding of science but also a deep understanding of the processes, models, judgment, and experimentation that underpin science.

Empowering Scientific Literacy in the Classroom

Science classrooms can nourish scientific literacy through a variety of ways, but three best practices in particular can accelerate the process: 1) using a variety of science texts; 2) sparking debate, discussion, and presentation; and 3) driving learning through inquiry. Here are a few underlying principles for using these strategies effectively:

1. The textbook is not the end-all-be-all of science instruction. In fact, many Title 1, ELL,

and subpopulation students lack the necessary prerequisite general literacy skills to

absorb information from complex texts such as an informative textbook. Furthermore,

most science basal texts are out-of-date, culturally/socially irrelevant, and often

Accelerate Learning, Inc. 4 weakly aligned to the specific content you want to teach. Instead of using textbooks

exclusively, expand the texts available to students to news articles, online videos, data

sets, and personal stories to introduce and cement scientific concepts. Judging the

validity and quality of a variety of sources on a given topic is part of scientific

literacy—simply using one textbook does not allow this. Save time by looking for

curriculum resources that integrate vetted, real-world resources that are updated

regularly to align with students’ interests and the content you need to teach.

2. Science is not unchanging or codified; scientist regularly debate, peer-review, and

reproduce one another’s findings in public settings. Afterwards, with consensus

established, scientists share findings in an understandable, compelling way to the

public. Doing the same activities (age appropriately) helps strengthen students’

scientific literacy. Using strategies such as creating presentations, newscasts, songs,

advertisements, and signs can be an excellent way to communicate scientific

knowledge coherently, while fomenting group discussion and debate about who was

most compelling and why. To go a step further, competing ideas can be used to spark

debate and discussion on a given topic (e.g., factors that most contribute to climate

change or what type of powerplant could be constructed to serve the surrounding

community) so that students not only develop ownership of their learning but passion

for the ideas they represent.

Accelerate Learning, Inc. 5 3. Inquiry is the most powerful tool in the teacher’s toolbox for building scientific

learning. Embedded into learning models such as the 5E+IA, inquiry is a means by

which students question phenomena in the world around them and THEN come to

understand the underlying principles governing the phenomena. After, they learn the

academic vocabulary used to talk about it (n.d., Zuiker & Whitaker). Inquiry and

hands-on exploration are the ideal pairing—by allowing students to experience a

phenomenon firsthand, explore it, question it, model it, and then test their notions of

how it works with academic understandings, they can then apply their knowledge and

experience to real-world problems. If you integrate one practice to develop scientific

literacy in the classroom, it should be inquiry-based instruction. Did we mention it

also makes science learning fun?

Ready, set, implement? Unfortunately, this is a process that takes time. Developing scientific literacy is about a vertical chain of educators teaching students how to understand deeply and apply relevant scientific concepts to their everyday lives. Simply transforming one class, albeit significant, is unlikely to make students more scientifically literate later in their lives such that they can judiciously determine why a new technology may have a good or bad impact, judge the findings/data of a publication, or simply understand why it is sensible to use a lid when you boil water.

Accelerate Learning, Inc. 6 No discussion about scientific literacy would be complete without also discussing a way to assess it. Unlike scientific knowledge, which is just fact-knowing, scientific literacy is very difficult to assess through multiple choice; it is best assessed through a performance-based evaluation. Judging if a pupil understands a concept fully requires a combination of observation and rubric-based assessment that can show growth over time.

Claim

Students state what they know in relation to a give scenario.

Evidence

Students share how they know what they know.

Reasoning

Students defend why the evidence shared supports their initial claim.

Claim-evidence-reasoning (and rebuttal for the upper grades) are ideal to evaluate students’ scientific literacy in a given scientific domain. Claim-evidence-reasoning (CER) was researched and studied by Joseph Krajcik and Katherine L. McNeil and originally developed for the National Science Standards and the K-12 Framework for Science Education by the

National Research Council. CER is a scientific way of explaining natural phenomena using evidence; it reveals our thought process and serves to describe the world around us. The CER

Accelerate Learning, Inc. 7 process guides students to develop a deeper explanations than they would ordinarily provide. And teachers, when observing their students, can understand a student’s grasp of scientific concepts, their ability to use appropriate and relevant evidence, and the thought process they used to justify how their evidence supports their claim.

When CERs are used as an assessment tool, we focus on the “how” and “why” rather than on just the “what”; we change gears from simply testing the student on facts, as in most multiple choice and short-answer test items, to asking open-ended questions that seek more complex explanations based on evidence and reasoning. As testing methods progress, there is no doubt that assessments like CERs will become more common, because they provide a greater wealth of data about students’ conceptual understandings than what can be gleaned from standardized fact-based assessments.

Scientific literacy is a 21st-century imperative, and not just for students with an academic or vocational interest in STEM fields. We owe it to all our students to make science not only engaging but also meaningful for the rest of their lives. What strategies will you implement to move from scientific knowledge to scientific literacy with your pupils?

References:

Brenan, M. and Saad, L. (2018, March 28). Global Warming Concern Steady Despite Some Partisan Shifts. Retrieved from https://news.gallup.com/poll/231530/global-warming-concern-steady-despite- partisan-shifts.aspx?g_source=link_newsv9&g_campaign=item_231386&g_medium=copy

Popovich, N., Schwartz, J., and Schlossberg, T. (2017, March 21). How Americans Think About Climate Change, in Six Maps. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/03/21/climate/how-americans- think-about-climate-change-in-six-maps.html

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UNESCO Institute for Statistics. (2018). Literacy. Retrieved from https://data.unicef.org/topic/education/literacy/

National Research Council. (1996). National Science Education Standards. Washington, DC. National Academy Press.

Funk, Cary and Goo, Sara H. (2015, September 10). A Look at What the Public Knows and Does Not Know About Science. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/09/10/what-the-public-knows-and-does- not-know-about-science/

Zuiker, Steven J. and Whitaker, Reid J. (n.d.). Refining Inquiry with Multi-Form Assessment: Formative and Summative Assessment Functions for Flexible Inquiry. Retrieved from https://stemscopes.com/resources/case_studies/cs_stemscopes_5eia_5th_grade_case_study_201608 25.pdf

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2016). Science Literacy: Concepts, Contexts, and Consequences. Retrieved from https://sites.nationalacademies.org/DBASSE/BOSE/Science_Literacy/index.htm

Lombrozo, Tania. (2015, September 14). Scientific Literacy: It’s Not (Just) About the Facts. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2015/09/14/440213603/scientific-literacy-it-s-not-just-about-the- facts

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