In addition to these aspects of scientific literacy, affect toward science and science learning
was also selected for investigation, as this study sought to determine whether middle school
students’ participation in an alternative writing-to-learn science strategy would improve their
disposition toward science. This aspect of scientific literacy has been acknowledged by PISA, in
that a scientifically literate person should demonstrate an “awareness of how science and
technology shape our material, intellectual, and cultural environments; and willingness to engage
in science-related issues and with the ideas of science, as a reflective citizen” (OECD, 2006, p.
23).