A cognitive apprenticeship for science literacy based on journalism

The Science Literacy through Science Journalism (SciJourn) project aims to reframe the discussion of science literacy for citizenship, and explore how science journalism practices can be used to inform a cognitive apprenticeship that increases the science literacy of participants. This symposium features four paper presentations that report on the progress of the SciJourn project. We report on the development of standards for science content literacy based on the expertise exhibited by science journalists, assessment measures for science literacy, and assessment measures for engagement with science and technology. Finally, we describe our efforts aimed at apprenticing high-school aged learners into a science journalism community of practice spanning multiple schools and a community-based organization. General Introduction Members of the Learning Sciences community engaged in science education almost universally agree that educated citizens in democracies should develop a strong disciplinary understanding of science. To date, such efforts have focused primarily on practicing expert scientists as the yardstick for what it means to "know science", and in the last twenty years on "coming to know science" through learning environments inspired by apprenticeship. Knowing science has typically been seen as having conceptions consonant with those of expert scientists (e.g., diSessa 2006); "talking science" (Lemke, 1990); using reasoning about models (Lehrer & Schauble, 2006) and spatial representations (Schwartz, 2006) like scientists; and knowing how to carry out the authentic inquiry practices of scientists (e.g., Edelson & Reiser, 2006; Krajcik, et al., 1998; O'Neill & Polman, 2004). Coming to know science has frequently been encouraged by creating communities of practice carrying out science inquiry (e.g., Pea, 1993; Rosebery, Warren, & Conant, 1993; Ruopp, et al., 1993). Learning environments based on a community of practice model have taken inspiration from the research on traditional apprenticeship learning (e.g., Lave & Wenger, 1991), and the related concept of cognitive apprenticeships for learning in schools (Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989; Collins, Brown, & Newman, 1989). These views of science knowing and learning have had a profoundly positive impact on education through direct reform and by being taken up and elaborated on in influential reports (e.g., Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000; Michaels, Shouse, & Schweingruber, 2008) and standards for science education (e.g., National Research Council, 1996, 2000). The tendency to base science learning goals on analysis of the expertise of practicing scientists is understandable, but it has important limitations relative to a broader view of "science literacy." In the learning sciences and science education literature, "science literacy" is sometimes used synonymously with "practice-based science literacy" (O'Neill & Polman, 2004) focused on being able to carry out the first-hand inquiry practices of expert scientists. When this happens, the literacy in "science literacy" may become lost. But a "science literacy" which includes reading, making sense of, writing, and communicating about contemporary science topics as they relate to everyday life and policymaking is obviously important to life and citizenship. The Science Literacy through Science Journalism project ("SciJourn"; Polman, Saul, Newman & Farrar, 2008) is a National Science Foundation research effort to better understand science literacy, and how science journalism practices can be used to inform a cognitive apprenticeship that increases the science literacy of participants (see http://www.scijourn.org). The project includes team members with backgrounds in the learning sciences, science education, literacy, science, and journalism; we draw on these diverse backgrounds to inform our understanding of both science literacy and learning. The project began in 2008, and we are in our second of four years of planned development and research. The 2008-09 academic year consisted of our alpha and beta tests of a journalism model for advancing science literacy in two high schools, simultaneous to the development of standards and discourse practices for science literacy, as well as transfer tasks and a survey of engagement. In summer of 2009, we conducted professional development with high school science and English teachers who are implementing various pilot instantiations of a journalism model in their classes during the 2009-2010 school year. At the same time, a group of science news reporters and editors was established at a youth development program at the Saint Louis Science Center (SLSC). The student reporters at schools and SLSC are publishing ICLS 2010 • Volume 2