Miha Lee’s SLO Reflection #4
1
Paper for Educational Awareness
(The importance of involving high-school chemistry teachers in the process of defining the
operational meaning of ‘chemical literacy’)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF ASSIGNMENT
This assignment was for a current event in SED 625S which required us to find a
research article and analyze it from two perspectives: one from a research method; the other
from a research topic. Dr. Rivas asked us to be familiar with current problems or issues in
education one of with was science literacy. At first I didn’t understand the meaning of the
word “literacy”. So, the first thing I had to was to find out the meaning of scientific literacy
which was more complicated than I expected. Then, I looked for the way of promoting
scientific literacy in my instruction by analyzing the research article which reports the result
of the workshop held for high school chemistry teachers to help them develop the practical
meaning of science literacy, especially chemical literacy.
CONNECTIONS TO THE SLO OF EDUCATIONAL AWARENESS
As an educator I need to develop an educational awareness about issues in education.
Science literacy is an important teaching goal in science education, but it is also a
controversial issue among the science teachers as well as the public because the perception of
science literacy has a great influence on what science courses should focus on in secondary
science education. In other words, the view of science literacy defines what to teach and how
to achieve the goal. Therefore, the defining of science literacy must precede any discussion
related to the role of scientific literacy in secondary science education.
REFLECTION
The assignment made me think of the purpose of my instruction. My schools where I
taught were from the communities with low-income class. As a result, I focused my teaching
on two things: one was for building general scientific literacy; the other was for helping my
students score better on the Korean SAT test. I know it is absurd to pursue apparently
contrast things at a time. Of course, depending on the subjects I taught, I stressed one thing
more than the other. Frankly speaking, however, this assignment made me realized the
contradiction in my attitude.
Miha Lee’s SLO Reflection #4
2
In the article for my paper, science literacy consists of three components:
knowledge, intellectual skills and disposition. However, in reviewing other literatures, I
found that science literacy has two important roles in science education. One is in deciding
what to teach and the other is in suggesting how to teach. The pedagogy that helps students
develop thinking skills and scientific attitudes is more important than factual knowledge in
this information age. Therefore, we should take more responsibility for developing the ability
of our students to think rationally and critically about chemistry-related issues, especially
those who do not intend to take any more chemistry in the future.
Although I got a very low score on this assignment, I had a priceless opportunity to
think of the direction of my instruction. I want my students to be educated citizens who make
decisions about social issues with critical thinking skills developed from deep understanding
of the conceptual structure of chemistry.