Exploring the Scientific Literacy: Its Use in Curriculum of Science Education

Education and learning scientific literacy in students have become the universal goal of science education. This study aims to explore the concept of scientific literacy curriculum to use in science education. The method of this research is qualitative and is conducted based on analytic-deductive approach. In this article, at first the concept of scientific literacy will be recognized from different perspectives then its meanings will briefly be studied and expressed. The preliminary discussion makes it clear that the concept of scientific literacy is one of the goals of science education of the educational systems in the world, and obtaining a full understanding of its meaning is not an easy task. The exact and functional definition of scientific literacy, considering its educational approach, pays attention to the nature of science topics in every society and it is necessary to consider the structure, politics and dominant philosophy of community. In the following, through clarifying the concept of scientific literacy, we state its dimensions and levels from the perspective of experts and organizations active in this field. The levels of scientific literacy show that the nature of scientific literacy is a relative concept, not an absolute concept. And students could be rated from level of scientific illiteracy up to highest level of scientific literacy. This topic presents a conceptual framework for curriculum specialists in the science education curriculum design by providing the levels and dimensions of scientific literacy. In the last part of this article and as a conclusion, in addition to emphasizing the positions expressed on the concept of scientific literacy by the author, causes of differences in the definition of the concept will be expressed, including: absolute and relative nature of scientific literacy, permanent developments of science and human progress in understanding the natural world, different educational methods and scientific literacy, different definitions and expressing different dimensions of scientific literacy by science education experts, expressing the scientific literacy purposes and concepts in accordance with the political, economic, and social conditions in every community. Four dimensions that were emphasized by experts are: concepts and terminology, the nature of science, science and society and the habits of mind.