Taking scientific literacy seriously as a curriculum aim

If this is what we are aiming for, what knowledge and capabilities do students therefore need? Essentially we want to provide students with a ‘toolkit’ of ideas and skills that are useful for accessing, interpreting and responding to science, as we all encounter it in everyday life. But what science do we meet in everyday life? One way to start to answer this is to survey a sample of newspaper articles, television news reports and public information leaflets (of the sort that you can pick up on a visit to the doctor or dentist). The science topics that appear most frequently in the news are health and environment – followed by space, Earth science (volcanoes and earthquakes) and palaeontology (fossils) (see, for example, Entwistle and Hancock-Beaulieu, 1992; Pellechia, 1997). Many health and environment articles report a claim that a factor (such as a new drug, or a specific component of your diet or environment) increases or decreases the chance (or risk) of a certain outcome. Often such claims are uncertain or contested by other scientists, or by lobby groups or individual non-scientists. Some articles report or discuss applications of scientific knowledge (for example in new medical treatments, or methods of food production) that raise social, economic or ethical issues. Articles on space and Earth science topics, or about fossil finds, often involve theories and explanations of the origin and evolution of the universe or of homo sapiens. Again the application of these to the case in hand is often somewhat speculative and may be contested. What knowledge and skills enable people to deal more confidently and effectively with such information, and reach more informed judgments about it?

In Twenty First Century Science, our answer is that you need some scientific knowledge (that is, knowledge about the natural world) and also some knowledge about science itself – about its characteristics as a form of enquiry, about the nature and status of the knowledge it produces and the evidence that supports this, and about the ways in which science, technology and society interact and influence one another. The former we term Science Explanations, and the latter Ideas about Science.

Table 1 lists the Science Explanations included in the core Science course. More detail can be found in the course specification (OCR, 2008). The primary selection criterion was that an explanation should be included only if an understanding of it might make a difference to a decision or choice that a citizen could have to make, or to the viewpoint he or she might hold on an issue or decision at local or national level, or if it offered a culturally-significant view on the human condition (on our ideas about ‘who we are’ and ‘where we are’). In other words, we used what Fensham (2003) has called ‘different drivers’ of curriculum choice decisions from those normally used. Many of the Science Explanations in Table 1 are well-established elements of the current school curriculum: the atomic/molecular model of chemical reactions, the idea of radiation, the gene theory of inheritance, the heliocentric model of the solar system, and so on. For these, key questions to ask are: what kind of knowledge, and what depth of knowledge, do people require? Twenty First Century Science takes the view that citizens need a broad, qualitative grasp of the major science explanations, which would allow them to relate the explanation in their own words. The detail which is often taught, and which many students find off-putting, is rarely needed.

SE1	Chemicals (the idea of a ‘substance’)
SE2	Chemical change (the atomic/molecular model)
SE3	How the properties of materials may be explained (by their structure)
SE4	The interdependence of living things
SE5	The chemical cycles of life (carbon, nitrogen, etc.)
SE6	Cells as the basic units of living things
SE7	Maintenance of life (major life processes and systems)
SE8	The gene theory of inheritance
SE9	The theory of evolution by natural selection
SE10	The germ theory of disease
SE11	Energy sources and the idea of energy transfers
SE12	The idea of radiation
SE13	Radioactivity
SE14	The structure and evolution of the Earth
SE15	The structure of the Solar System
SE16	The structure and evolution of the Universe

In a similar way we can identify the Ideas about Science that we want students to learn. A striking feature of media coverage of science is that many stories are about risk and the factors that increase or reduce a given risk. Often claims are made about correlation and cause. The majority of these stories are about health and medicine. The sciences involved – epidemiology, health science, medicine – have not traditionally been part of the school science curriculum, which has centred on physics, chemistry and biology. The methods of investigation used in the health sciences (searching for correlations in large databases, clinical trials, etc.) have not normally been taught. But there is clearly a very strong case for including them. Here a scientific literacy emphasis involves introducing some new content. The Ideas about Science included in Twenty First Century Science are summarised in Table 2. Again more detail can be found in the course specification (OCR, 2008).

Table 2. ‘Ideas about Science’ in the Twenty First Century Science course

		Students should:
IaS1	Data and its limitations	be aware that all observations and measurements are subject to uncertainty; know how to use the mean and the range of values in a data set to assess its trustworthiness
IaS2	Correlation and cause	be able to think about phenomena in terms of factors (or variables) and an outcome (or the probability of an outcomes); know how a claim that a factor affects an outcome can be tested; be aware that correlation does not necessarily indicate cause.
IaS3	Developing explanations	be able to distinguish data and explanation in an account; aware of the role of imagination in devising explanations; know how explanations are tested by comparing predictions with data; be able to assess the implications of specific data for a given explanation
IaS4	The scientific community	be aware of the role and importance of peer review and the replicability of findings; be able to explain why people may reasonably reach (and defend) different explanations of the same data, and how external (non-scientific) influences may influence people’s views and interpretations.
IaS5	Risk	be aware that all activities and processes carry some risk.; know how risks can be assessed and compared; be aware that measured and perceived risk can differ, and of the need to balance probability of occurrence and scale of consequences in taking decisions.
IaS6	Making decisions about science and technology	be aware of the benefits of science-based technology, and also the possibility of unwanted consequences; know some ways in which scientific activity is regulated; be able to identify costs and benefits of an action, separate issues of feasibility (can it be done?) from those of value (should it be done?), and discuss rationally science-related issues that have an ethical dimension.

These two elements, Science Explanations and Ideas about Science, are the ‘pillars’ of the Twenty First Century GCSE Science course. The aim, however, was not to teach them out of context, but rather to develop an understanding of them through having students consider and discuss a series of issues, grouped around a small number of themes that would be of interest to many young people of this age. This led to a set of nine thematic modules (Table 3).

Table 3. The thematic modules that make up the Twenty First Century GCSE Science course

Figure 2 then illustrates schematically the structure of the GCSE Science course: a sequence of thematic modules, each of which develops understanding of one or two specific Science Explanations and Ideas about Science, planned in such a way that the whole sequence of nine modules allows students to meet each of the Ideas about Science more than once, so that they can see how these can be applied to many situations and contexts. There are in fact many more opportunities for re-visiting the Ideas about Science during the course, if teachers choose (or have time) to do so.

Because of its emphasis on becoming a more ‘critically aware’ consumer of scientific knowledge claims, the Twenty First Century GCSE Science course includes several case studies of current and historical episodes in which knowledge claims have been advanced, contested and perhaps resolved. These are used to open up discussion of epistemological issues, of the role of the scientific community, and of the issues (technical, economic, social, political, ethical) raised by the application of scientific understanding in new artefacts, materials and processes. Some examples are shown in Box 1.

Box 1. Examples of the use of case studies in Twenty First Century GCSE Science

You and your genes: A short video clip of a role-play (by professional actors) of a middle aged couple discussing symptoms the man has been experiencing which might indicate Huntington’s disease. Leads into discussion of the issues for various family members raised by a diagnosis, and whether this knowledge is beneficial. Develops the need to understand underlying genetics ideas to assess the issues involved. Later lessons in the module use real TV news clips about early diagnosis of cystic fibrosis to open up discussion of the arguments concerning the costs and benefits of screening programmes for genetic conditions.

Air quality: Data from air quality monitoring in urban environments is used to open up discussion of the replicability and reliability of measurements. Pollutants from vehicle engines are used as the context to develop understanding of the atomic/molecular model of chemical reactions and reinforce the idea that no atoms are created or destroyed in such processes.

Radiation and life: Data and information on the risks and benefits of UV in sunlight are presented. This provides a context for reinforcing key ideas about radiation (spreading out with distance from a source; possible consequences when absorbed, etc.). Also leads to discussion of risks of microwave radiation, and how related health studies might be made more convincing (large samples; better matched samples; better control of other variables, etc.)

Case studies are valuable not only in providing contexts for introducing scientific explanations and ideas about science, but also opportunities for discussion and debate in science classrooms. Several recent studies (Lyons, 2006) have identified the absence of such opportunities, and the consequent perception by students of science classes as ‘one way transmission of factual knowledge from teacher to learner, as a major source of student disaffection with school science. Discussion of issues, which many students find engaging, can increase students’ motivation to come to terms with abstract ideas and specialist terminology, and acts as a powerful reminder of the links between taught science ideas and the issues one hears about outside school. Students also need to come to realise that everyone is entitled to have and to express a view about such issues, but that views are more persuasive when they are grounded in sound understanding of the underlying science and follow established patterns of argumentation (for example, using systematic evidence rather than anecdote, or using an accepted general form of argument about ethical action). In this, as in much else, practice is important – and science classes can play a role in getting students used to analysing the arguments of others and constructing sounder arguments of their own.

The teaching materials produced for the Twenty First Century Science pilot included full-colour textbooks, files of photocopyable resources for each lesson with accompanying teachers’ notes, and an iPack (a CD-ROM containing a collection of computer-based resources: video and audio extracts, animations to help teach some key ideas, Powerpoint presentations and so on). A project website was developed to support pilot school teachers. The project also provided training for teachers in using the course materials, with a particular emphasis on new or unfamiliar content and on teaching methods that are less commonly used in science lessons (such as discussion of open-ended issues, use of newspaper articles as resources).