Theory and Practice: Exploring a holistic understanding of scientific literacy into the heart of science classrooms

Abstract

There is broad agreement in the science education community that generating scientifically literate students is not only a good thing, but the main goal for science education. However, this begs the question of what does scientific literacy encompass? And what can science teachers do to strengthen students’ literacy? To explore these questions this paper aims to clarify the concept of scientific literacy and the philosophical principles that underlie it. Based on this information, strategies will be presented that can help to bring scientific literacy into the heart of everyday classroom activities.