Abstract:

The paper will present my PhD research project which is currently ongoing and which aims to understand how to connect Science Communication (SC) and Science Education (SE) in order to develop Scientific Literacy (SL). To develop 21st-century citizens, European Institutions consider the role of SL essential, especially in the contemporary context, marked by scientific and technological development (EC, 2015). SL refers to a scientific mindset (Akerson, 2018) in which scientific knowledge and critical thinking are combined (Ah-Namand & Osman, 2018) to promote a critical and well-informed awareness of science (Lederman et al., 2013, Akcay, 2018).

To reach this goal, we need innovative Science Education (SE) curricula, characterised by a multidisciplinary and reflective dimension, which develops critical thinking (Akcay, 2018). Beyond the formal context, we should also consider informal and non-formal education contexts, for whom SC can be an important source of inspiration. This one, even via social media, sends messages using entertainment to create edutainment (EC, 2020), making high interactivity, engaging and shareable activities, relevant in the contemporaneity context of media connections, which encourages a direct activation of the user (Sandu & Christensen, 2011; Pinto & Riesch, 2017; López-Goñi & Sánchez-Angulo, 2018). Consequently, the connection between SC and SE appears worthy of the promotion of SL. Even though the benefits of SC in the classroom are already known by a few teachers interested in it (Everhart, 2009; Gardner et al., 2009), there is not much research about it.

For this reason, this research, which is in its first steps, wants to understand how to connect SC and SE using the potential of different educational lines. The first step of the study will be to investigate, through the tool of an integrative review (Whittemore, 2005), the relations between SC and SE. Then, starting from these elements, educational research will be designed and conducted with the implementation of an educational program in some schools that connects SC and SE to develop SL. The study will follow a naturalistic inquiry approach because of its capability to investigate human experiences with a specific focus on the meaning the people give to them (Merriam, 2002, Mortari, 2007). Consistently with that, research methods that will be used to conduct this research project will be ethnography, which through its data collection tools (such as participant observation) will provide data about the involved people’s experiences (Li, 2008); and phenomenology, which will allow the researcher to focus the meaning that people assign to their lived experiences (Mortari, 2007), linking that to the objective dimension of learning following the educational innovation implemented (Clarke, 1999). Therefore, the data analysis will focus on identifying the elements of effectiveness and critical areas of the educational program and verify the value of the connection between SC and SE for promoting SL. The final aim of the project is to generate instruments and guidelines that can be shared within different contexts about STEM education, to optimize and innovate the teaching experience (Jorde & Dillon, 2012; Akkerman et al., 2021).

Keywords:

Science Education, Science Communication, Science Literacy.