2023/03/14 by Jonathan Osborne, Daniel Pimentel, Daniel R. Pimentel · 1 voice · 169 citations
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Climate Change Communication and Perception #Context (archaeology) #Curriculum #Educational Strategies and Epistemologies #Epistemology #Globe #Law #Literacy #Misinformation #Misinformation and Its Impacts #Nature of Science #Nothing #Pedagogy #Phenomenon #Philosophy #Philosophy of science #Political science #Psychology #Science education #Science, technology, society and environment education #Scientific literacy #Scientific misconceptions #Social science #Social science education #Sociology #Sociology of scientific knowledge
paper · doi:10.1002/sce.21790
published in Science Education 107(3), 553-571 (Wiley)
openalex publication_date 2023/03/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Abstract In this paper, we argue that the current science curricula are failing to educate students to be competent outsiders to science. Historically, science education has rested on two premises. The first is that it is possible for students to acquire sufficient scientific knowledge from K‐12 education to become intellectually independent. That is that science education can produce individuals capable of evaluating scientific evidence and arguments critically for themselves. This belief is what underlies many of the conceptions of scientific literacy and is the basis of the rationale that is used to sustain and justify what is offered in nearly all countries across the globe. The second is the belief that the science that students will encounter will have been filtered such that it can be trusted. Nothing today could be further from the truth. Today, misinformation abounds and much of it purports to be scientific. Very few conceptions of scientific literacy have considered how students can be prepared to evaluate the claims that abound on social media. Current conceptions of “scientific literacy,” we argue, are failing to articulate the competencies and knowledge required in today's changed context. In what follows, we lay out our arguments for why it is time to rethink the conception of scientific literacy by considering what it requires to be a competent outsider to science. Then drawing on our recent report, we lay out what might be done within science education to address the specific phenomenon of misinformation.