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Why Literacy Matters in Science Education?
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Why Literacy Matters in Science Education?
For Postman, 1979, Science is more than just plants and animals. It is a language about plants and animals.
Word gap
- Research by Hart and Risley (1995) showed that literacy challenges start early on in a child’s development, it has been said that by the age of three, there is a 30-million-word gap between children from the wealthiest and poorest families.
- Cameron (2003) showed that the word gap is evident in children from 18 months and, by the time a child goes to school, they are already at a disadvantage in terms of the extent of their vocabulary.
Word gap
- The word gap may be due to many different reasons and have been linked to several areas such as:
- The number of books in the home.
- The conversation between parents and children at home.
- Home language.
- Socio-economic status (SES).
Low SES
- Children from lower-income families and those with English as an additional language, in general, have a larger vocabulary gap, according to recent research by Maguire et al. (2018).
- Correlational studies completed by Back, McKeown, and Kucan (2002) of learning in science show that the strongest and most consistent predictor of students’ attainment in science education is how literate they are.
Interpreting scientific texts
- A possible explanation for this is that reading comprehension is vital for interpreting and understanding scientific texts.
- Another area that influences comprehension is understanding the structure of unfamiliar words in scientific texts.
- Having a knowledge of the meaning of ‘more’ words means that students will be able to read and comprehend text more effectively.
- However, you need to be able to understand what the words mean in order to make meaning of the text.
1Why Literacy Matters in Science Education?
1.1Why Literacy Matters in Science Education?
2The Language of Science
2.1The Language of Science
3Reading in Science
3.1Reading in Science
4Writing in Science
4.1Writing in Science
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1Why Literacy Matters in Science Education?
1.1Why Literacy Matters in Science Education?
2The Language of Science
2.1The Language of Science
3Reading in Science
3.1Reading in Science
4Writing in Science
4.1Writing in Science
Practice questions on Why Literacy Matters in Science Education?
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- 2Reasons for the word gap:Fill in the list
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