EDST2090

Teaching Scientific Literacy

Faculty of Education and Arts School of Education

10 Units 2000 Level Course

Available in 2014

Ourimbah	Trimester 2

Previously offered in 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008

This courses focuses on the development of pre-service teachers' scientific literacy. Using a multiliteracies framework, the course explores scientific knowledge as represented in written, graphic, and digital forms. It aims to assist students to make connections between scientific knowledge as generated through disciplined inquiry, and questions derived from their everyday experiences. It will assist teachers to represent and communicate scientific ideas, understandings and information; and to teach scientific concepts competently to their future students.

Objectives

In undertaking this course students will develop:

1. An understanding of the competing definitions of scientific literacy;
2. An understanding of the multimodal forms of scientific communication;
3. A knowledge of a wide range of practices and texts supporting the development of scientific literacy;
4. An understanding of how scientific knowledge may be related to students' everyday lives;
5. An ability to engage in discourse of and about science;
6. A capacity to evaluate the quality of scientific information on the basis of its source and the methods used to generate it.
7. A capacity to design instruction that challenges alternative conceptions of scientific phenomena.

Content

1. The Multiliteracies Framework.
2. Constructs of Scientific literacy.
3. Subject specific vocabulary, metalanguage, and language structures and features of scientific discourse.
4. Pedagogies for developing the scientific literacy of young children.
5. Pedagogical approaches for challenging alternative conceptions of scientific phenomena.

Replacing Course(s)

N/A

Transition

N/A

Industrial Experience

Assumed Knowledge

N/A

Modes of Delivery

Internal Mode

Teaching Methods

Lecture
Tutorial

Assessment Items

Essays / Written Assignments	Assignment 1 - 20% (800 words): Exploring children's understandings of scientific phenomena.
Essays / Written Assignments	Assignment 2 - 40% (1600 words): Critical analysis of ready-made science-focused teaching resources.
Presentations - Individual	Assignment 3 - 40% (1600 words): 10 minute presentation plus lesson plan and associated resources. Selection and analysis of scientific discourse in children's or everyday multimodal text. Design of lesson plan focused on explicit teaching of scientific language and concepts located in the selected multimodal text.

Contact Hours

Lecture: for 1 hour(s) per Week for 10 weeks
Tutorial: for 2 hour(s) per Week for 10 weeks

Timetables