Literacy learning as involving both skills and relationships: Implications for the development of science literacy

This is the latest version of this eprint.

Abstract

It is becoming more common to view learning in science as the development of a language practice or literacy. It makes sense then to investigate the application of literacy teaching principles from other areas of literacy to science literacy. A collaborative project involving a traditional science teacher and the author, a researcher with a "language and literacy" teaching background, involved working with a (low SES) Year 8 Science class, using activities which demystified some of the common genres of the science classroom. We found that when these activities took place in an environment where students' concerns and feelings were respected, then language, teacher-student relationships and curriculum practices were all transformed to some extent to produce a learning environment in which students became more actively involved in the curriculum and in their own learning. There are many theoretical and practical implications of these findings, including the notion that a literacy approach to the teaching of science may go some way to solving intransigent pedagogical problems such as superficial learning and alienation from science.