Linda Heidenrich
SED 600
Rethinking Scientific Literacy
The premise behind this study was scientific literacy is increased in two critical
ways: more prevalent use of writing about science and creation of an environment in
which learning science is safe. This article was the fourth stage of a doctoral program for
a math and science researcher in Australia.
Her previous research highlighted two
conditions critical to increased scientific literacy: the power relationship between teacher
and student in addition to the need to belong to a meaningful learning community. Ms.
Hanrahan tested this theory by creating an action research project involving twenty-four
students ranging from 12-13 years of age at a private Catholic school in a lower
socioeconomic area who had scored low on the literacy portion of the entry tests
(Hanrahan, 1999, 702). She hypothesized affirmational dialogue journal writing would
help students to be more scientifically literate.
Affirmational dialogue journal writing
requires the students to complete a journal entry expressing their feelings about a certain
experiment, reflecting on a test or reflecting on previous experiences with science. The
researcher then took these journal entries and responded to them in an affirmative manner
focusing on the insight and suggestions the students offered.
I commend Ms. Hanrahan for several aspects of her research.
First, she
committed eight months to this research and had the students respond to a variety of
topics ranging from specific (the experiment completed that day) to the general (what has
your experience in science been like?). In addition, she had the students use code names
for their journal entries so they felt comfortable with providing honest answers as well as
allowed her to publish the answers for the other students and her research paper. She
addressed the students’ concerns in a classroom discussion format in addition to
providing written feedback to the students. Ms. Hanrahan also triangulated her research
by performing interviews with the students and the teacher in addition to making
videotapes and corresponding transcripts of components of her study. Ms. Hanrahan also
was an increasingly involved researcher, beginning with general observations,
progressing to short activities with a lesson and ending with conducting an entire period
of instruction and dialogue. By providing anonymity, being an active participant and
triangulating her data, Ms. Hanrahan created a sound research project. Yet, my concerns
with her research include the lack of participation on the part of the teacher and the lack
of an obvious connection between her research and scientific literacy. Ms. Hanrahan
provided the majority of the feedback for the students and then had a dialogue with the
teacher regarding students’ comments due to the concern of placing additional time
burdens on the teacher. Although this dynamic worked and the teacher made changes to
his teaching based on these conversations, I felt the teacher should have been more
involved in the journaling process. In addition, although Ms. Hanrahan’s research proved
clearly student achievement increased overall, general literacy and writing competency
increased, and behavior problems decreased due to increased ownership and buy-in for
their science class, the connection was not clear that scientific literacy increased from this
research study.
This study reminded me to integrate journaling into my class on a regular basis
because it allows students to feel ownership of the class, allows students the ability to
write which is beneficial across the curriculum and allows students to reflect and think in
a metacognitive way about the science curriculum.
My students are similar to the
students in this study in that they generally dislike science, have low writing skills and
rarely have the chance to reflect on their learning. This study reminded me how critical
overall literacy is to achieving scientific literacy.
Hanrahan, Mary. (1999). Rethinking Science Literacy: Enhancing Communication and
Participation in School Science through Affirmational Dialogue Journal Writing.
Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 36, 699-717.