Supporting the Development of Students’ Scientific Literacy

ABSTRACT

Science teachers are increasingly encouraged to critically engage their students with scientific knowledge and expertise, with the expectation that such instructional practices will support the development of scientific literacy (SL). Drawing on Bildung framework, this qualitative study was conducted in Tanzania to explore how science teachers’ classroom practices facilitate the development of students’ SL. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and non-participant classroom observations with science teachers and students from six secondary schools. The study has identified five instructional practices that were used to support students’ development of SL, namely guided reading, code-switching, educational print and visual aids, science experiments, and science projects. While there is evidence that the instructional practices used provided opportunities for students to contribute their thinking, experience and understanding to the science learning, the instructional practices were mostly print-based, paper-based and teacher-led, resulting in little engagement in active scientific thinking and literacy learning. Overall, the knowledge base developed by this study is of practical use to science teachers and educators in making decisions about appropriate instructional practices and what should be the regular focus of pre-service teacher education and professional development programs.

KEYWORDS:

• Bildung
• instructional practices
• literacy learning
• science learning
• scientific literacy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethics statement

The current study met the ethics/human subjects’ requirements of the research institution at the time of data collection. In addition to research approval to conduct the study, key ethical principles were followed in the current study, including informed consent, voluntary participation, respect for participants, participants’ right to withdraw, anonymity and confidentiality, and honesty.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Mkwawa University College of Education [MUCE- 20177].