Scientific literacy or science literacy encompasses written, numerical, and digital literacy as they pertain to understanding science, its methodology, observations, and theories. Scientific literacy is chiefly concerned with an understanding of the scientific method, units and methods of measurement, empiricism and understanding of statistics in particular correlations and qualitative versus quantitative observations and aggregate statistics, as well as a basic understanding of core scientific fields, such as physics, chemistry, biology, ecology, geology and computation.
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👉 Scientific literacy in the context of Functional literacy
Functional illiteracy consists of reading and writing skills that are inadequate "to manage daily living and employment tasks that require reading skills beyond a basic level". Those who read and write only in a language other than the predominant language of their environs may also be considered functionally illiterate in the predominant language. Functional illiteracy is contrasted with illiteracy in the strict sense, meaning the inability to read or write complete, correctly spelled sentences in any language. The opposite of functional illiteracy is functional literacy, literacy levels that are adequate for everyday purposes, and adequate reading comprehension, the ability to read collections of words (such as sentences and documents) and comprehend most or all of their meaning.
The characteristics of functional illiteracy vary from one culture to another, as some cultures require more advanced reading and writing skills than do others. In languages with phonemic spelling, functional illiteracy might be defined simply as reading too slowly for practical use, an inability to effectively use dictionaries and written manuals, and other factors. Sociological research has demonstrated that countries with lower levels of functional illiteracy among their adult populations tend to be those with the highest levels of scientific literacy among the lower stratum of young people nearing the end of their formal academic studies. This correspondence suggests that the capacity of schools to ensure students attain the functional literacy required to comprehend the basic texts and documents associated with competent citizenship contributes to a society's level of civic literacy.
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Scientific literacy in the context of Technology education
Technology education is the study of technology, in which students "learn about the processes and knowledge related to technology". As a field of study, it covers the human's ability to shape and change the physical world to meet needs, by manipulating materials and tools with techniques. It addresses the disconnect between wide usage and the lack of knowledge about technical components of technologies used and how to fix them. This emergent discipline seeks to contribute to the learners' overall scientific and technological literacy, and technacy.
Technology education should not be confused with educational technology. Educational technology focuses on a more narrow subset of technology use that revolves around the use of technology in and for education as opposed to technology education's focus on technology's use in general.
Scientific literacy in the context of Information deficit model
In studies of science communication, the information deficit model, also known as the deficit model or science literacy/knowledge deficit model, theorizes that scientific literacy can be improved with increased public engagement by the scientific community. As a result, the public may then be able to make more decisions that are science-informed. The model implies that communication should focus on improving the transfer of information from experts to non-experts.
Currently, many studies challenge the information deficit model as it ignores the cognitive, social, and affective factors that influence one's formation of attitude and judgements toward science and technology.