The Role of Teacher Education in the Science Literacy Development

Abstract

One of the aims of education is to produce wise and responsible citizens who are aware of their impact on the environment and can address and solve daily life problems. From this point of view, science education leading to science literacy is helpful for all students, regardless of their future careers. In this paper, we first review the definitions of science literacy in the literature and present the strategies for its development. In Slovenia, we refer to the ongoing national project NA-MA POTI. Most of the strategies studied focus on primary and secondary schools. However, for the development of science literacy in primary and secondary education, teachers themselves must achieve a sufficient level of science literacy. The research was conducted with a small group of prospective teachers, focusing on three components of science literacy: asking research questions, making hypotheses, and designing an experiment. In addition, we analysed the curricula of the science didactics courses in the teacher education program. The findings show a great need for a systematic change in the curricula. Finally, proposals and ideas for improving the curricula for the didactics of science and the syllabus of the Subject teacher study program are presented. Keywords: science literacy, teacher education, didactics of science, didactics of technics & technology, curricula