Workshop
Putting the literacy into scientific
literacy
Literacy is not some kind of adjunct to science. Rather, it is constitutive of science itself. Science
depends on writing, talking and reading to communicate its findings and to express its ideas as much
as any other discipline. Hence, every teacher is a language teacher as teachers, quite literally, have
little else to teach but a way of talking and therefore seeing the world. Recently, the importance
of developing students’ disciplinary literacy has become an increasing priority in many countries.
Traditionally, though, some teachers have not paid much attention to reading and writing. Drawing
on research we have been conducting at Stanford, this workshop will specifically explore ways in
which teachers can support the teaching of reading and catalyze comprehension and discussion
around texts.
Professor Jonathan Osborne is a Visiting Professor to the University of
Waikato. He holds the Kamalachari Chair in Science Education at the
Graduate School of Education, Stanford University. Previously he held the
Chair in Science Education at King’s College London. He was a co-author
of the report Beyond 2000: Science Education for the Future, a member of
the US National Academies Panel that produced the Framework for K-12
Science Education that is the basis for the new Next Generation Science
Standards, and he currently chairs of the expert group that produced the
framework for the science assessments conducted by the OECD Program
for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2015 and 2018. His research interests are particularly
in the role of argumentation in science and improving the teaching of literacy in science.
DATE/TIME: Thursday 10 December, 2015: 3.30-5.00pm
VENUE: Meeting Rooms A&B, Faculty of Education, Hamilton, University of Waikato
RSVP:
To [email protected]