We are excited to welcome our friend and former colleague David Fortus on Wednesday, September 18 as we begin the new season of the CREATE Seminar Series.
David will be giving a presentation titled: The Role of Affect in Science Literacy for All: Policy Implications, beginning at noon in the CREATE seminar space. We will provide light refreshments and all are welcome, so please bring a colleague if you know someone who might enjoy this event.
We would love to see you in person, but are offering a Zoom option, with registration required:
https://msu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_waGcoAEeRMqjLrezuN4X0g
Abstract: The goal of science literacy for all underlies much of today’s K-12 science education. This goal assumes that the citizens of contemporary societies must be able to appreciate the relevance of and draw upon scientific knowledge and practices in a broad range of personal and social issues. However, many national science education standards, which aim to promote science literacy for all, focus almost entirely on prescribing the conceptual knowledge and practices that underlie science literacy, with only little, if any, reference to the affective characteristics that need to be fostered in parallel to conceptual knowledge and skills in order to achieve general science literacy. In this speech I will highlight why affect is so important for the development of science literacy by critiquing the arguments that underlie many national standards documents and by considering the crucial role played by affective characteristics in becoming and remaining scientifically literate and a lifelong learner of science. I argue that there is a discrepancy between what is known in the science education research literature about the importance of affect and the national science education standards of many countries, with the latter often not acknowledging the affective domain as an important education outcome. This discrepancy is an obstacle to the attainment of science literacy for all.
David Fortus is a Professor and The Chief Justice Bora Laskin Professorial Chair of Science Learning at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovat, Israel. His research interest is focused on increasing middle - high school students’ motivation to engage with science in a meaningful way. David is currently a co-principal investigator on the “Constructing Quantitative Knowledge-in-Use of Energy” project, housed in the CREATE for STEM Institute.
