The Potential Contribution of Geography Curriculum to Scientific Literacy

Abstract

Few studies, if any, have systematically investigated the connection or relationship between geography curriculum and scientific literacy. With this realization, in this article, we examined the potential contribution of geography curriculum to developing students’ scientific literacy, with China’s middle-school geography curriculum as an example. Through content analysis and semi-structured interviews, we found that geography curriculum holds significant potential to develop scientific literacy, especially regarding interpreting data in various formats, scientific reasoning, and interrelationships among science, technology, society, and environment. This study could provide insights for educators to design interdisciplinary programs to develop students’ scientific literacy.

Key Words:

• geography curriculum
• scientific literacy
• middle-school level

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Prof. Changwen Chen, Prof. Shengqing Chen, and Prof. Zhifang Xia for their suggestions on earlier drafts of this article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Xiaowei Xuan

Xiaowei Xuan is a lecturer in the Department of International Cooperation at Shanghai Teacher Training Center, Shanghai, China.

Qingna Jin

Qingna Jin is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Elementary Education, Faculty of Education, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Injeong Jo

Injeong Jo is an associate professor in the Department of Geography, Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas, USA.

Yushan Duan

Yushan Duan is a professor in the School of Geographic Sciences at East, China Normal University, Shanghai, China.

Mijung Kim

Mijung Kim is an associate professor in the Department of Elementary Education, Faculty of Education, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.