Scientific Literacy and Problem-oriented Project Learning

Scientific literacy has been a topic of great interest from both educators and policy-makers for some decades now. Since the introduction of the term scientific literacy by Paul Hurd in 1958 (Hurd, 1958) the concept have grown in meaning and depth (Laugksch, 2000). What scientific literacy is however, can be hard to define since many different definitions have developed through the years (Laugksch, 2000). One thing seems to be clear however, scientific literacy is the goal of science education on all levels and is therefore of great importance for everyone involved in science education across the world (Holbrook and Rannikmae, 2009).

At Roskilde University Inquiry Based Learning (IBL) have always been a part of the pedagogy (Andersen and Heilesen, 2014).
The special form of IBL called Problem-oriented Project Learning (PPL) is what one might name (for want of a better term) ’full-blown’ IBL. The IBL becomes full-blown since the students are handed a great deal of self-control in defining the subject, problematization of the idea and choice of methodology.
What advantages and disadvantages does PPL possess? This question should be addressed, so that the educational community have a better idea on what different kinds of IBL are able to do and how to conduct it to ensure the highest quality of science teaching.
How the science students at RUC work with PPL and what relation it might have with scientific literacy is therefore the essential question that this project seeks to answer, or at least help explore and discuss.

This problem raises several questions regarding what we mean by Scientific Literacy and how we can see it in action.
The exact design of the project has not yet been decided but a way to gather the data needed is to follow one or two project groups for a whole semester. This includes group meetings, supervisor meetings, laboratory work, course work etc. That will be the research site.
As theoretical background the project will use is Bruno Latour’s actor-network theory and discourse theory. These will help to spot patterns and understand how the students are working, which will be essential in analyzing the data.
This will lead to an understanding on how the science students at RUC work and a description on how scientific literacy might come into play.