121 The Competencies Required for Scientific Literacy Competency 1: Explain Phenomena Scientifically 17. The cultural achievement of science has been to develop a set of explanatory theories that
have transformed our understanding of the natural world, such as the idea that day and night is
caused by a spinning Earth, or the idea that diseases can be caused by invisible micro-organisms.
Moreover, such knowledge has enabled us to develop technologies that support human life
enabling such things as the prevention of disease and rapid human communication across the
globe. The competency to explain scientific and technological phenomena is thus dependent on a
knowledge of these major explanatory ideas of science.
18. Explaining scientific phenomena, however, requires more than the ability to recall and use
theories, explanatory ideas, information, and facts (
content knowledge ). Offering scientific
explanation also requires an understanding of how such knowledge has been derived and the level
of confidence we might hold about any scientific claims. For this competency, the individual
requires a knowledge of the standard forms and procedures used in scientific enquiry to obtain
such knowledge (
procedural knowledge ) and an understanding of their role and function in
justifying the knowledge produced by science (
epistemic knowledge ).
Competency 2: Evaluate and Design Scientific Enquiry 19. Scientific literacy implies that students should have some understanding of the goal of scientific
enquiry which is to generate reliable knowledge about the natural world (Ziman, 1979). Data
collected and obtained by observation and experiment, either in the laboratory or in the field, lead
to the development of models and explanatory hypotheses that enable predictions that can then be
tested experimentally. New ideas, however, commonly build on previous knowledge. Scientists
themselves rarely work in isolation and are members of research groups or teams that engage in
extensive collaboration with colleagues both nationally and internationally. New knowledge claims
are always perceived to be provisional and may lack justification when subjected to critical peer
review
– the mechanism which the scientific community has established to ensure the objectivity of
scientific knowledge (Longino, 1990). Hence scientists have a commitment to publish or report
their findings and the methods used in obtaining the evidence. Doing so enables empirical studies,
at least in principle, to be replicated and results confirmed or challenged. Measurements, however,
can never be absolutely precise. Rather, they all contain a degree of error. Much of the work of the
experimental scientist is, therefore, devoted to the resolution of uncertainty by repeating
measurements, collecting larger samples, building instruments that are more accurate, and using
statistical techniques that assess the degree of confidence in any result.
20. In addition, science has well established procedures such as the use of controls that are the
foundations of a logical argument to establish cause and effect. The use of controls enables the
scientist to claim that any change in a perceived outcome can be attributed to a change in one
specific feature. Failure to use such techniques leads to results where effects are confounded and
cannot be trusted. Likewise, double-blind trials enable scientists to claim that the results have not
been influenced either by the subjects of the experiment, or by the experimenter themselves. Other
scientists such as taxonomists and ecologists are engaged in the process of identifying underlying
patterns and interactions in the natural world that warrant a search for an explanation. In other
cases, such as evolution, plate tectonics or climate change, science relies on arguments that are
an inference to the best explanation examining a range of hypotheses and eliminating those which
do not fit with the evidence.
21. Facility with this competency draws on content knowledge, a knowledge of the common
procedures used in science (