Science Literacy: what does it mean anyway?

Recently I was attending a seminar on Science Literacy and Social Development. In the seminar a small work group was made to look into the problems of defining Science Literacy, another three groups were made to analyze the linkages between Scientific Information and Social Development, bringing the mass communicators close to Scientists and for relating Science Literacy with the National Literacy Mission. It was interesting to note that one of the scientists raised the fundamental question of terminology. He asked should we define Science literacy or should we talk about scientific literacy. In fact, I feel that the problem of conceptualizing the term comes from the use of word literacy itself. In fact the terms like language and literacy are widely used in English is a very loose sense. We talk about language of politics, language of colors on one hand and visual literacy and Science literacy on the other hand. In fact the term literacy itself has multiple meaning for us. The first and for most meaning of literacy is the use of letters and not sounds for communicating. Later this word acquires another meaning: gathering knowledge through written word.

Before writing this piece for the month, I went to a few web sites that discuss the issue of science literacy and I found some interesting discussions out there. I would comment on these sites later some times but I can give you the links for them so that you may yourself visit these sites to make sense of this discussion. The first site is www.summitscience.org/literacy/ by summit on science. This site tries to define science as “a specific and systematic method of posing questions, collecting and evaluating evidence, and considering the practical and ethical implications of the research. Its hallmarks include skepticism, critical thinking, regard for data, and a willingness to adopt new views, etc”. Other web site on science literacy is by a science librarian and a reference specialist of University of California the hyperlink for this one is: http:://www.library.ucsb.edu/islt/ou-winter/article2.html. This site has a number of references to the definition of Science Literacy. It gives a whole lot of science related links and also discusses the issue at length. I would recommend this site for all those who want to work in this area.

In this site there is a mention of a discussion on the nature of scientific literacy (mind you here Shen uses the word “Scientific” and not “Science”). Benjamin Shen (1975) divides science literacy into three categories: cultural scientific literacy, civic scientific literacy, and practical scientific literacy. Shen defines civic scientific literacy as "a level of understanding of scientific terms and constructs sufficient to...understand the essence of competing arguments on a given dispute or controversy." Responding to this definition in his 1998 article, Jon Miller focuses on three points that could elaborate Shen’s idea. Accordingly, civic scientific literacy requires "(1) a vocabulary of basic scientific constructs.. (2) an understanding of the process or nature of scientific inquiry, and (3) some level of understanding of the impact of science and technology on individuals and on society."

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