Scientific Literacy Revisited

Abstract

In recent decades, the notion of scientific literacy has become increasingly prominent in international debate about science education, a trend mirrored by a similarly expanding interest in technological literacy and environmental literacy1. Although a number of writers have traced the history and evolving definition of scientific literacy (Gräber & Bolte, 1997; Laugksch, 2000; De Boer, 2001; Ryder, 2001; McEneaney, 2003; Roberts, 2007; Dillon, 2009), there is some value in revisiting that history and development here, albeit very briefly.