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The Physics Teacher -- October 2008 -- Volume 46, Issue 7, pp. 404
The Surprising Effectiveness of College Scientific Literacy Courses
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Add to FacebookResearch by Jon Miller, professor of Interdisciplinary Studies and director of the International Center for Scientific Literacy at Michigan State University, shows that the U.S. scientific literacy course requirements for nonscience college students pull the United States into second place in international rankings of adult scientific literacy. This despite the poor science scores of U.S. primary and secondary school students as compared with other nations. The far lower adult scientific literacy rankings of most European nations and other industrialized nations appear to be due to the lack of any such college scientific literacy requirement in those nations. Instituting such a requirement in all nations, and improving the quality and quantity of such courses on U.S. campuses, would increase global scientific literacy significantly, arguably doubling Europe's scientific literacy rate. In view of this result and today's crying need for scientific literacy, physics educators should make physics for nonscientists their top priority.
© 2008 American Association of Physics Teachers
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Online Sep 2008
ARTICLE DATA
Digital Object Identifier
- Art Hobson, “Millikan Award Lecture, 2006: Physics for all,” Am. J. Phys. 74, 1048–1054 (Dec. 2006)AJPIAS000074000012001048000001.
- Art Hobson, Guest Editorial, “Science literacy and backward priorities,” Phys. Teach. 44, 488–489 (Nov. 2006)PHTEAH000044000008000488000001.
- For a general overview of Miller's research, see James Trefil, Why Science (Teacher's College Press, New York, 2008), Chap. 6.
- Jon D. Miller, “The impact of college science courses for non-science majors on adult science literacy,” a paper presented to a symposium titled “The Critical Role of College Science Courses for Non-Majors” at the annual meeting of the AAAS, 18 Feb. 2007, San Francisco.
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