Preparing students for the modern information landscape and navigating science–technology–society issues

Abstract

The goals of science education must be sufficiently broad to support learners navigating changing scientific, social, and media landscapes. This position paper builds upon existing scholarship to articulate a set of constructs useful for navigating the modern information landscape including constructs with a long history in science education (e.g., science content knowledge, science practices, nature of science) as well as those still relatively uncommon in science education (e.g., domain‐general epistemological beliefs, science disciplinary literacy, socioscientific reasoning, science media literacy, nature of technology, and critical consciousness). The paper first defines each construct, discusses how each construct supports navigating the modern information landscape, and explores research concerning the teaching and learning of each construct. Then, in the section “Application of Constructs to the Modern Information Landscape”, the paper succinctly explains how the constructs collectively combat particular struggles people may encounter. In addition to defining and articulating the constructs' utility, we explore strategies educators can use to integrate these constructs into their science teaching. Finally, we discuss implications for teaching, teacher education, and future research.