Influential Science Literacy Research
On this page, you'll find links to the influential research that has shaped the field of science literacy.
Science Literacy: Concepts, Contexts, and Consequences, 2016
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK396081/
Authors: National Academies of Science, Engineering, & Medicine, Committee on Science literacy and the public perception of science
Summary: Influential book by experts analyzing past uses of science literacy and a way forward by focusing on the science literacy of groups and communities, rather than individuals.
Salvaging Science Literacy, 2011
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/sce.20414
Published in: Science Education
Author: Noah Feinstein
Abstract: “There is little evidence that the prevailing strategies of science education have an impact on the use and interpretation of science in daily life. Most science educators and science education researchers nonetheless believe that science education is intrinsically useful for students who do not go on to scientific or technical careers. This essay focuses on the “usefulness” aspect of science literacy, which I contend has largely been reduced to a rhetorical claim. A truly useful version of science literacy must be connected to the real uses of science in daily life—what is sometimes called public engagement with science. A small number of science education researchers have already begun to connect science education and the broader field of public engagement with science. Their work, as well as the work of researchers who study public engagement, suggests that it is possible to salvage the “usefulness” of science literacy by helping students become competent outsiders with respect to science. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed 95: 168–185, 2011”
Outside the Pipeline: Reimagining Science Education for Non-scientists, 2013
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23599483/
Published in: Science
Authors: Noah Feinstein, Sue Allen, Edgar Jenkins
Abstract: “Educational policy increasingly emphasizes knowledge and skills for the preprofessional "science pipeline" rather than helping students use science in daily life. We synthesize research on public engagement with science to develop a research-based plan for cultivating competent outsiders: nonscientists who can access and make sense of science relevant to their lives. Schools should help students access and interpret the science they need in response to specific practical problems, judge the credibility of scientific claims based on both evidence and institutional cues, and cultivate deep amateur involvement in science.”
Scientific Literacy: Another Look at Its Historical and Contemporary Meanings and its Relationship to Science Education Reform, 2000
Published in: Journal of Research in Science Teaching
Author: George E. DeBoer
Abstract: “Scientific literacy is a term that has been used since the late 1950s to describe a desired familiarity with science on the part of the general public. A review of the history of science education shows that there have been at least nine separate and distinct goals of science education that are related to the larger goal of scientific literacy. It is argued in this paper that instead of defining scientific literacy in terms of specifically prescribed learning outcomes, scientific literacy should be conceptualized broadly enough for local school districts and individual classroom teachers to pursue the goals that are most suitable for their particular situations along with the content and methodologies that are most appropriate for them and their students. This would do more to enhance the public's understanding and appreciation of science than will current efforts that are too narrowly aimed at increasing scores on international tests of science knowledge. A broad and open‐ended approach to scientific literacy would free teachers and students to develop a wide variety of innovative responses to the call for an increased understanding of science for all. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 37: 582–601, 2000”
Science Literacy and the Public Understanding of Science, 1975
https://www.jstor.org/stable/27845461?seq=1
Published in: Communication of Scientific Information
Author: Benjamin Shen
Summary: Shen writes about the necessity of science literacy for all people, given the centrality of science in modern life and the way science can change life and society in ways both positive and potentially negative.
Scientific Literacy: A Conceptual Overview, 2000
Published in: Science Education
Author: Rüdiger C. Lauksch
Abstract: “In this review of the published literature in English on the concept of scientific literacy, the net is cast wider than just the professional science education community, and the diverse works on scientific literacy are brought together in an interpretative synthesis of this literature. Scientific literacy is first placed in an historical context, and a number of different factors that influence interpretations of this concept are discussed thereafter. These factors include the number of different interest groups that are concerned with scientific literacy, different conceptual definitions of the term, the relative or absolute nature of scientific literacy as a concept, different purposes for advocating scientific literacy, and different ways of measuring it. The overview yields a fuller understanding of the various factors that contribute to the concept of scientific literacy, and makes clear the relationships between these factors. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Sci. Ed 84:71–94, 2000.”
The Myth of Science Literacy, 1995
Book summary: https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Myth_of_Scientific_Literacy.html?id=1Wu6chnUAiYC
Published by: Rutgers University Press
Author: Morris Shamos
Summary: “Why do we make every schoolchild and college student take science? Does every American really need to be scientifically literate? In this provocative book, Morris Shamos, a physicist and science educator of very broad experience, argues that universal scientific literacy is a futile goal, and urges a critical review of the purpose of general education in science. Shamos argues that a meaningful scientific literacy cannot be achieved in the first place, and the attempt is a misuse of human resources on a grand scale. He is skeptical about forecasts of “critical shortfalls in scientific manpower” and about the motives behind crash programs to get more young people into the science pipeline. Finally, he is convinced that, as presently taught, the vast majority of students come out of science classes with neither an intellectual grasp nor a pragmatic appreciation of science. Shamos advocates instead a practical science education curriculum that grants the impossibility of every American learning enough science to make independent judgments about major scientific issues. Rather than giving children the heavy diet of scientific terms and facts they now get, he would emphasize: an appreciation of science as an ongoing cultural enterprise; an awareness of technology’s impact on one's personal health, safety, and surroundings; and the need to use experts wisely in resolving science/society issues.”
Scientific Literacy: A Conceptual and Empirical Review, 1983
https://www.jstor.org/stable/20024852
Published in: Daedalus
Author: Jon D. Miller
Summary: Miller reviews the history of the term science literacy and the status of science literacy in the US, reviewing his efforts to survey the adult American population for their understanding of science, describing the method to survey public understanding of science that he developed and are still used today.
The Public Understanding of Science, 1989
https://www.nature.com/articles/340011a0
Published in: Nature
Authors: John R. Durant, Geoffrey A. Evans, Geoffrey P. Thomas
Summary: Durant and colleagues describe the importance of science literacy.
The Measurement of Civic Scientific Literacy, 1998
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1088/0963-6625/7/3/001
Published in: Public Understanding of Science
Author: Jon D. Miller
Abstract: “Building on two decades of national surveys in the United States and two Eurobarometer studies, the history, rationale, and structure of a measure of civic scientific literacy are described. Estimates of the proportion of adults who are very well informed or moderately well informed on the index of civic scientific literacy appear in the literature more frequently, and this paper provides the first comprehensive description and analysis of the civic scientific literacy measure. It is hoped that this analysis and discussion will encourage the inclusion and replication of the measure in a wider range of studies of the public understanding of and attitudes toward science and technology.”
Public understanding of science: from contents to processes, 1988
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0950069880100406
Published in: International Journal of Science Education
Authors: Robin Millar, Brian Wynne
Abstract: “Public understanding of science is commonly seen in terms of lay persons' understanding of the contents of science. This article argues that it may be more salient to consider public understanding of the internal processes of science - of the nature of scientific knowledge and of the sorts of information that science can reasonably be expected to provide. Drawing on the reported statements of non-scientists in the media following the Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident, the article argues that the view of scientific knowledge that many people appear to hold is not one that can help them interpret and cope successfully with STS issues. The role that formal science education plays in sustaining this unhelpful view of science is discussed and some implications for practice are considered.”
Knowledges in Context, 1991
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/016224399101600108
Published in: Science, Technology, & Human Values
Author: Brian Wynne
Abstract: “Our projects begin by exploring the relationships between “citizen” and “sources” - between members and groups of the public and that diverse body of institutions, knowledges, and disciplinary specialists that we term science. We ask questions such as: What do people mean by science? Where do they turn for scientific information and advice? What motivates them to do so? How do they relate this information or advice to everyday experience and to other forms of knowledge? We focus on the diverse encounters with science and expertise that typify everyday experience, a central analytical issue being the construction of authority.”
