Context
Reasons for the shift to NGSS and changes in the definition of scientific literacy
Within a traditional science classroom students are asked to engage with science primarily as a body of knowledge. Standards focus on concepts taught as facts, which are presented as the outcome of science that has already happened, and memorized by students so that these facts can be used to answer test questions. Emphasis is placed on these discrete, disconnected facts as the knowledge which is Science. The scientifically literate student in this context is the student that can memorize these facts best and restate them most reliably.
Take for instance, this quiz, developed by Jon Miller director of the International Center for the Advancement of Scientific Literacy at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Miller developed this quiz to determine how well individuals understand science. The questions focus on science facts which, the quiz implies, would have been memorized by individuals that “understand” science well. While these are indeed core ideas utilized by scientists and students within the disciplines they are a product of the fetishization of science into interesting facts and the emphasis placed on concept facts within science education standards. This has resulted in an era of students being exposed to science as stable, unchanging body of knowledge; lacking any interaction of human creativity, insight, imagination, or the gathering of empirical evidence that allows science to work.
A report published by the National Academy of Sciences in 2012 describe the need for a new vision of science education. A Framework for K-12 Science Education details this vision as taking into account to major goals: 1) Educating all students in science and engineering; and 2) Providing the foundational knowledge for those that will one day work in the STEM fields (National Research Council, 2012). The Framework’s principal concern being the former task- preparing students for their lives and roles as citizen in a technology rich and scientifically complex world (National Research Council, 2012). Moulding (2015) describes this shift in science education as:
A report published by the National Academy of Sciences in 2012 describe the need for a new vision of science education. A Framework for K-12 Science Education details this vision as taking into account to major goals: 1) Educating all students in science and engineering; and 2) Providing the foundational knowledge for those that will one day work in the STEM fields (National Research Council, 2012). The Framework’s principal concern being the former task- preparing students for their lives and roles as citizen in a technology rich and scientifically complex world (National Research Council, 2012). Moulding (2015) describes this shift in science education as:
From teaching about science to engaging students in science performances;
From teaching core ideas as the outcome of science to engaging students in using science core ideas to explain phenomena;
From large numbers of science concepts taught as facts to fewer core ideas used repeatedly;
To a greater focus focus on matter and energy across all science disciplines; and,
To instruction that engages students in making sense of the interconnection across multiple disciplines of science as well as mathematics and language arts.
With a shift in how science is being taught and a new set of standards, a shift in what qualifies an individual as scientifically literate also is necessary. Based on the shift in science education that is occurring with the role out of the NGSS and new state standards based on NGSS a discussion surrounding this new scientific literacy is necessary. Students capacity to acquire specialized knowledge and memorize it no longer prepares a student for the technology rich and scientifically complex world described by A Framework.
A scientifically literate citizenry
A scientifically literate citizenryA scientifically literate citizenry is vital for the United States of America, as well as the global community as a whole. As such, it is important that science teachers recognize their role in educating a new generation of scientifically literate citizens. In order for students to make informed decisions about scientific issues, they must be taught to recognize the connections between science and society. As Kolstø writes, “It has been argued that to empower the students as citizens, there is a need to emphasize science as an institution and the processes by which scientific knowledge is produced” (Kolstø, 2001, p.292). As students grow up and begin to make decisions that affect the global community, they should feel capable of evaluating the validity of scientific claims based on their understanding of the nature of science.
Consequences of scientific illiteracy
However, in order for students to take ownership of their beliefs and make contributions as scientists, they must be able to understand the nature, practices, and knowledge of science and be able to communicate them. As Gee (2004) describes, “Human language is built to support human thinking, both of which are perspectival…All wordings – given the very nature of language – are perspectives on experience that exist alongside of competing perspectives in the grammar of the language and in actual social interactions” (Gee, 2004, p.53-54). When students fail to communicate their perspectives or to understand those of their peers, they are cheated of an opportunity to build science literacy. In such moments of science illiteracy, students lack a comprehensive understanding of doing authentic science and developing their identities within science. This has even larger consequences when we consider the application of science knowledge and skills outside of the classroom. Science illiteracy may cause students to make poorly informed decisions when voting for future political leaders, forming opinions about economic and environmental policies, and even when it comes to their own health. Without science literacy, students may fail to see how their individual and collective actions as humans impact the world around them, for the better or worse.
Works Cited
Gee, J.P. (2004). Situated Language and Learning: A critique of traditional schooling. New York, NY: Routledge.
Kolstø, S. D. (2001). Scientific literacy for citizenship: Tools for dealing with the science dimension of controversial socioscientific issues. Science Education, 85(3), 291-310. doi:10.1002/sce.1011
National Research Council. (2012). A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas. Committee on a Conceptual Framework for new K-12 Science Education Standards. Board on Science Education, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
Moulding, B. D., Bybee, R., & Paulson, N. (2015). A vision and plan for science teaching and learning: an educator's guide to a framework for K-12 Science education, next generation science standards, and state science standards. Place of publication not identified: Essential Teaching and Learning.